There are many ways to be of service when you want a career that’s about helping people. Jamie Koatz found her calling as the director of advance planning at Riverside Memorial Chapel in Manhattan and Hawthorne, New York. “My whole life, all I ever wanted to do was help people,” she said. “I wanted it to be in a Jewish way but I didn’t exactly know how. And when I figured it out, it was funeral directing. If I can take away an ounce of pain from someone going through the worst event in their life, not only is it a huge mitzvah, it brings so much joy and meaning to my life.”

Aspiring to be a funeral director may seem like an unusual career path, but it was one Koatz knew well. Her grandfather owned two funeral homes in Boston, and when he passed away, she decided to follow in his footsteps. She enrolled at the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science for her degree in funeral directing, where she won a scholarship to a program run by Service Corporation International (SCI), the parent company of Dignity Memorial, which includes the Riverside Chapels. After graduating, she moved to New York where she did her residency and became a licensed funeral director.

After getting her license, she reached out to someone she knew at SCI asking him to contact her if he knew of any open positions. One month later, he called. “He had this position as director of advance planning at Riverside, but little did he know that it was, in fact, my dream job,” said Koatz.

As a family service counselor and director of advance planning, Koatz guides people who want to have a funeral planned and paid for in advance either for themselves or a loved one. Planning and financing a funeral in advance saves the family from making decisions at the most emotionally vulnerable time of their lives. It ensures that the person’s directives will be followed since the logistics have been decided and paid for. Adult children are spared the drama of conflict over what to do for a parent — it’s already been taken care of. Even when there are no problems, making decisions adds to the pain when you are grieving.

“We say that there are 124 questions that get asked in the first 24 minutes when someone is planning a funeral,” said Koatz. “When you pre-plan, those questions go down to two — what is their name and where are they?”

Riverside offers payment plans that can be made over time. In New York, the money is paid into an interest bearing account. That locks in Riverside’s prices. Riverside can’t control prices of third parties such as the rabbi or travel fees. But as part of a huge national and international network, Riverside will assist in making all travel arrangements to bring the niftar home, wherever they are in the world. Riverside plans are transferable to any of Dignity Memorial’s locations, which are in most states across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

So, what makes this Koatz’s dream job? She loves working in pre-planning. The people she guides are calm and not rushed since the event is still somewhere in the future. Riverside in particular is a wonderful place to work, she said. “The people and the culture are just fantastic. You’ve never met a group of people who care so much about the families we serve as the people I work with.” She also gets tremendous satisfaction from her clients. “I love hearing their stories and staying in touch with them.”

Koatz shared a story that always makes her smile. A 102-year-old woman walked into her office and said, “Jamie, I think I need to pre-plan.” Koatz agreed. “Every two months she calls me. I always pick up when I see her name. I say, ‘Fay.’ And she says ‘I’m alive’ and hangs up. She’s still hanging in there at 107.”

Koatz suggested starting to pre-plan when you are thinking about retiring and looking at your finances to get everything in order. But it’s never too late to plan in advance, like Fay, who began at 102.

Koatz lives in Riverdale, and previously lived on the Upper West Side for several years. She knows the Modern Orthodox communities there well. And they know Riverside. “Everyone there knows to call us,” she said. “And if for some reason they don’t know us, they know to call their rabbi and he will call us.”

For more information about advance planning at Riverside Memorial Chapel, call Koatz at (212) 362-6600. Riverside Memorial Chapel has locations in New York at 180 West 76th St., Manhattan; 100 Saw Mill River Road in Hawthorne; 1450 Broadway in Hewlett, New York; and 55 North Station Plaza in Great Neck New York.

Bracha Schwartz is special sections editor at The Jewish Link.