Women are revitalising funeral services in America

NOT LONG ago one could admire Crystal Jovae Coratti’s handiwork from the audience at Chicago’s prestigious Goodman Theatre. Ms Coratti designed costumes and powdered actors with make-up. For “The Iceman Cometh” she distressed the trousers and clothes worn by a group of revellers looking for redemption at a bar in New York. These days Ms Coratti displays her talents in a less lively venue: a funeral home. To the surprise of family and friends she became a funeral director and embalmer, trading actors for cadavers. “Almost everyone was pretty gobsmacked because it was so out of left field,” she says.