Fifth-generation Funeral Director Anna Wilbert Breaux has spent her life learning the funeral profession. As a youngster, her first classes were held around the dinner table when relatives came for Sunday dinner. The building previously housing the funeral home included an apartment for the director’s family.
“My three brothers lived at the funeral home, but I did not,” she said. “I remember it being off the ground, and there was a ramp where cases were rolled into the funeral home. But, as a 4- or 5-year- old kid, I found it a wonderful place to run up and down.”
Her three brothers are licensed but only one, F. Anton Wilbert, is active in the business.
“I’m the only girl,” she added.
Her grandfather, John William Wilbert Sr., died in 1971.
“The new funeral home had just been built,” Anna said. “I remember my grandfather not feeling well one day, and then he was dead of a heart attack. He was 74. I also remember my father being upset. He hugged me and I could feel his entire body shaking. That was the first time I had experienced my father’s grief.”
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Southern Calls Issue 32
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