New funeral director's first customer is own father

OPA-LOCKA, Fla. (AP) - As a new funeral director, Lori Davis prepared for the first person she would embalm and bury in her new position. That turned out to be her own father.
Shortly after she became funeral director at the Rock of Ages Funeral Chapel, her 68-year-old father, Emory Hadley Jr., was fatally stabbed in his bed July 5.
Davis said embalming her father herself was important, though she sometimes had to leave her work half-finished and drive around listening to gospel music to calm her emotions.
"It's bringing people back to life for me," Davis said of her work.
Davis had her father's dark blue casket surrounded by hundreds of sunflowers, daisies and roses at his burial Saturday. Before saying goodbye, she folded a baby blue blanket by his feet and adjusted his formal black jacket.
A nephew of Hadley has been charged with first degree murder. Police said the two men had a fight.