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Erica S. Smith

Life Departure Legacy Coach

Who is Erica S. Smith ?

I’m a former hospitality professional who spent 13 years climbing the ladder  to upper management and a six figure income when I quit my job to pursue my  passion of helping others navigate one of life’s most difficult experiences-the death of a loved one.

  

But More Importantly

I’m a mom to my two adult children, “E-Mom” to my amazing “mini-me” and  granddaughter and I’m  passionate about helping everyday people embrace mortality, prepare for life’s departure and leave the  legacy they dream about.  

 

Daddy's Little Girl ?

I grew up in the City of Philadelphia where one of my favorite places to hang out was at the Philadelphia County Medical Examiner’s Office (the morgue).

My dad worked at the morgue and he was my favorite person to hang out with. Whenever I got the chance to go to work with my did or hang out at his job after school, that’s exactly what I did.

While my friends thought it was an unusual place for a young girl to hang out, it was quite normal to me. So much so that I planned to attend Mortuary Science School upon graduating from high school but I would soon find myself pursuing a Pre-Med Degree. Why? Because Daddy said Pathologist make really good money. 
 
Well tens of thousands of dollars and a digestive ulcer later, I was done with that plan.

I had no idea what my next steps would be but 
one thing my dad made sure I believed was, I could do all things if I only put my mind and muscle to it.

There has never been a single thing that I imagined I could do, that I have not tried. So after walking away from Pre-Med, I went on to do “all things” . Literally.  

I became a Sergeant in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard,  I  served as a  police officer in Philadelphia and Cobb County Georgia. I became a licensed real estate agent, title agent and dabbled in real estate investing as well. I started a few businesses and became a certified  herbalist, all before embarking upon what I thought would be my final career as Director of Safety and Loss Prevention for a leading Hospitality Company.

And then my brother died

Do you know that life has a way of taking you back to the beginning?  My brother’s death was the experience that took be back to my decades old dream of  going to Mortuary Science School. We laid  my brother to rest in January and I started  School in May. 

 
My dream was to own a funeral home in Philadelphia to honor my dad’s legacy. He died 4 months before I graduated.
 
After graduating, I began juggling both my career in hospitality and funeral directing, I worked for  local funeral homes, learning the business  so I could eventually open a  funeral home of my own.
 
I had spent well over a decade climbing to  the position of Director at a luxury property in downtown Washington DC, and like many entrepreneurs I had  to figure out how I was going to transition from the job that pays the bills to the career that feeds my passion and purpose. 
 
As I continued to help families during their most difficult time, I learned that while families are devastated by the loss of a loved one, many of them are even more distraught because they had not made any preparation. They had never even had a conversation with their loved one about their wishes and what to do in the event of their passing.
 
Some have admitted that they just did not want to think about the death of someone they love so they chose to avoid  the conversation. This has later lead to regrets and feelings of guilt because they avoided the conversations for way too long. In life we often say, it’s never too late to do a thing however, that does not hold true in matters of death.   
 
Helping a child navigate the loss of a parent who never talked about their mortality can be challenging for a funeral director. But more importantly, leaving a loved one without answers to important questions or knowledge of one’s final wishes adds undo  burden to an already painful experience.
 
Many families never have a  single conversation about what to do in the event of a death. If there is any dialogue at all, it  may sound like this, “If something happens to me,  my insurance papers are in that box on shelf in my closet”. The truth is, we have been taught to believe that preparing for for death means having life insurance. While life insurance is a plus, navigating a death requires so much more than life insurance. 
 
If you’re upbringing was anything like mine, you were probably taught to be prepared and plan ahead. You may have even been told that having a plan is not enough and having a Plan B just in case is a good idea..
 
In your lifetime you have likely made plans for all kinds of events and experiences in your life. You made those plans even while knowing that they may never come to pass, due to circumstances beyond your control. You made those plans knowing that there was no guarantee that any of it would manifest.  However, the one event that we all are guaranteed to experience is death, but we put off making preparations and avoid the conversations. Have you ever wondered why? 

In most cases, it’s generational. Our grandparents didn’t make preparations so our parents didn’t. Because our parents didn’t talk about it we don’t talk about it.  In other cases we feel that talking about death will somehow encourage death to show up.

Unfortunately, this generational avoidance  is hurting the people we leave behind. The very people we protected, loved and cared for while we were living. We leave them with no plan, no answers and no instructions.

It’s time to make a change. Your family deserves it. It’s time to unburden the death experience and I’m here to help every step of the way!

No more juggling my job and my passion. I’ve decided to hang up my hospitality hat  and pursue my passion of helping others embrace mortality so those they leave behind are prepared and not burdened when a life departs.

Welcome to Life Departure Legacy Academy!

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