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Death becomes her — Badin grad finds place in funeral industry

‘I didn’t want to be a nurse,' says Molly Zoz during a presentation at her alma mater.

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By Linda Ebbing, Staff Writer 12:32 AM Wednesday, September 23, 2009

HAMILTON — A love for anatomy led Molly Zoz, a 2003 Badin High School graduate, to an atypical career choice.

The former Fairfield resident is a licensed funeral director/embalmer at Avance Funeral Home in Fairfield.

Zoz gave a presentation at her alma mater on Tuesday, Sept. 22, about what led to her career choice and the work that goes into it.

“I found in ... physiology class my senior year that I really liked learning about human anatomy,” she said. “But I didn’t want to be a nurse or doctor.”

Looking at other options, she researched mortuary school.

“After I decided to become a funeral director, I never gave it a second thought,” she said.

Zoz graduated in 2007 from the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science.

Along with human anatomy — which included tracing a drop of blood throughout the body — she also took accounting and grief classes.

As a funeral director, my job “is talking to people when they are still going through that grief process ... walking the survivors through the process and explaining their options.

“It’s important that the next of kin has someone with them because they won’t retain all the information that I am giving them,” she said.

As a licensed embalmer, “a goal I keep in the front of my mind is to make the deceased as presentable as possible for the family.”

Badin educator Chuck Mignery invited Zoz to talk to the students.

“I think it’s great to have one of our own come back and be willing to give something back to our school.

“She was a good student and I have nothing but high praise for her,” Mignery said. “As a young professional, she can expose the students to her career and give the ladies a chance to learn more about what has traditionally been a male-dominated profession.”

Ninth-grader Loren Warner said she was looking forward to Zoz’s presentation and was not disappointed.

“It was very interesting,” Warner said. “I was very interested in art, but this is something I would like to learn more about.”

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