By Concepcion Ledezma Riverbend News
Most teenagers aren't exactly dying -- pardon the pun -- to be employed at a funeral home.
However, 17-year-old Jonquay Andrews seems to savor every moment he is there.
His grandmother, Ada Dean Curry, summed it all up: "Ever since he was four, he'd rather be at the funeral home than at home."
In the decade or so he's been associated with Eric A. Brown & Son Funeral Home in Jasper, Andrews’s fervor for the funeral business has not diminished. He was employed there from age 14, he said.
"Yes, my grandmother is right about me always wanting to be at the funeral home," the Hamilton County High School (HCHS) 11th grader said. "I've always been fascinated by how things work and the work that's involved with dead bodies.
"Besides, I learn a lot at the funeral job," he said. "If I stayed home, I'd be doing nothing."
Andrews, who has gained notoriety at the school for his unconventional occupation, admits he's gotten used to getting the expected reactions from his peers.
"Some would say, 'Eww. . . that's disgusting' . . . stuff like that," Andrews said. "But I just tell them that there's nothing to it. To me, it's a passion."
Among his duties at Brown & Son are dressing the bodies, helping move the casket, taking phone calls and greeting mourners. Andrews, who also plays the drum and bass guitar, plans to study mortuary art in Jacksonville.
His funeral prowess for a young man came with a small price. His talent also includes athletics, mostly football and basketball, sports he's been playing since rec league. By all accounts he developed respectable skills as a defensive end and guard at HCHS before giving them up last year.
While going to the funeral home has become a part of Andrews’s everyday life, work isn't always a routine.
He acknowledges that while there are deaths that are expected -- for instance, as a result of terminal illness and/or elderly -- there are occasional deaths that affect him emotionally.
One such instance was the recent murder of 39-year-old Jasper resident, Christopher Rayford Jr., who was the victim of a gunshot wound on Friday, Feb. 19. Andrews was among the workers on duty during the funeral proceedings at the Friendship burial site in rural Jasper.
"I was feeling sad," he admitted. "I kept thinking about how I would see him at his mother's house. They only lived a few houses away. I remember him being a nice guy, so it affected me, too. But I had a job to do (at the funeral). I think having to concentrate on doing my job helps me cope with something like this."
Andrews, in fact, has earned enough of his boss trust to be asked to travel to Atlanta in early March to help transport a body back to Jasper.
"It was a great experience," Andrews said, "but at the same time, I was shocked to see how some bodies at funeral homes were hanging off stretchers; they don't take care of (dress) the bodies the way they do (at Brown & Son). It was a big difference between the way the city folks take care of the body and the way the country folks do it. It made me realize we do right with the people here."