0:10:21 > 0:10:22Life is never the same
0:10:22 > 0:10:26whenever you're introduced to the funeral business.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32I think when you're young
0:10:32 > 0:10:34and suddenly you have this huge culture shock
0:10:34 > 0:10:38where you see things that nobody else sees...
0:10:38 > 0:10:41The whole thing about seeing someone that has died
0:10:41 > 0:10:44is the whole lack of animation that a human body has.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47People look very, very different.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50To be surrounded by death on a daily basis,
0:10:50 > 0:10:54I think it's something that you get used to over a period of time.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57To me, it's a very natural thing.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05I don't think you can be in the funeral business for 25 years
0:11:05 > 0:11:07and not be affected by it.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14I probably lost a bit of my youth.
0:11:14 > 0:11:19It was just one of those sacrifices that you have to make.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27Embalming is an essential part of the funeral profession.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31It provides a lasting memory picture.
0:11:31 > 0:11:35No-one wants to be left with a bad memory.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41The first time that I experienced the embalming theatre,
0:11:41 > 0:11:43I said that I'd never come back.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48I mustered up enough courage a few days later and back I came
0:11:48 > 0:11:52and then I gradually built up my constitution from there on in.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58I would have handled around about 5,000, I suppose,
0:11:58 > 0:12:02give or take a few here or there. That's a lot of people, actually.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05If they paraded out past the front of the office there,
0:12:05 > 0:12:07I suppose it would take a long time.
0:12:09 > 0:12:11I'm interested in the funeral business and I'm interested in art.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14I started as a collector and I started to collect paintings
0:12:14 > 0:12:17and I couldn't get enough of them and then I ended up owning a gallery.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19People will ask the question,
0:12:19 > 0:12:23"Do you see any comparison between the funeral business and art?"
0:12:23 > 0:12:26From the embalming aspect of it,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29we'd be very particular about how someone is placed in the coffin,
0:12:29 > 0:12:32how they look in the coffin, how they're positioned.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35I mean, every aspect of it has to be into perfection, you know,
0:12:35 > 0:12:38and I feel the same particularly about art and the gallery
0:12:38 > 0:12:43that I have - that everything has to be 100%, everything has to be right.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59It's allowed me to become part of people's lives
0:12:59 > 0:13:03in a very intimate and stressful time and distressful time
0:13:03 > 0:13:08and share with them something that was very important to them.
0:13:13 > 0:13:18There's that moment that's very hard to describe, you know,
0:13:18 > 0:13:21that you get your head round where someone is in this scene and time
0:13:21 > 0:13:23and then they're taken away from it.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29It makes you think of prioritising in life and what you need to do
0:13:29 > 0:13:30and what you want to do.
0:13:32 > 0:13:37"Will I end up in a nursing home? Will I lose my mind?
0:13:39 > 0:13:40"Or will I take an illness?"
0:13:44 > 0:13:47I've often thought what it'd be like to transport my mind
0:13:47 > 0:13:50into somebody else's mind that has no experience of death.
0:13:50 > 0:13:52Would they have a much happier,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55carefree sort of a life than what I have?
0:13:55 > 0:13:58I don't know, but I wouldn't want to be anybody else.