People Who Kick Ass: Doris V. Amen, Undertaker for Hire

photo by Julie Glassberg via the New York Times

For all the bitching we do about about some of the peeps in this hood, I think it's high time we recognize the folks that make the Park Slope area unique. Doris V. Amen is a great place to start.

Last Friday, the The New York Times' "Character Study" column profiled Ms. Amen, the Funeral Director of Jurek Park-Slope Funeral Home on 4th Avenue and 23rd Street. Amen purchased the home from a Polish Family in 1989 and has been running the place on her own ever since. At the start of the article she says, "Sometimes you got to do it all yourself," while jumping out of her hearse in pumps to pick up a corpse. At this moment I knew I loved her. 

Brooklyn-born and raised, Amen has no trouble wrapping up dead bodies or hauling around caskets. Things I have nightmares about, she does on a daily basis without batting an eyelash. And she's running this business almost entirely on her own. And here's further proof that she's the bees-knees, via the NYT:

As usual, she had her fuel: an extra large Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, mugs of fudge-flavor diet soda, and her electronic cigarette. And as usual, she wore a form-fitting knit dress and matching pumps. She was painting her long nails purple to match them.

Am I the only one who thinks this woman is amazing?