A nail technician has launched an unusual new service to ensure the deceased look their best at their wake.
Natasha Kealey hopes to help bereaved families provide a last loving service for their deceased relatives by doing their nails.
Announcing her new ‘Mortuary Nails’ service, the experienced Derry nail artist said that while some people might think it slightly “morbid”, she was willing to visit family homes to provide gel polish or acrylics for the deceased.
“How many times have you said to a loved one ‘Don’t let anyone see me dead without my nails, hair or lashes done?
“I know I have and if I ever passed I’d hope someone could provide my family with a service to make me look my best just one more time before I leave for the afterlife,” she said.
Completing her training as a nail technician in 2012, Ms Kealey worked for a short period before changing careers to become a care assistant. She believes it was her work as a care assistant that awakened her desire to help people.
“Later my sister opened Glam Hair and Beauty in Waterloo Street (Derry city centre) and I went back to work with her,” she said.
When a friend’s close relative died recently, Ms Kealey said she was very impressed with the way the undertakers worked to prepare the body.
“I was watching them and saw how they took great care; there was no fuss and they were so respectful and showed great sympathy as they got everything ready. I remembered doing my own granny’s nails when she died and I thought that is something I could do for others. The caring side might be from my work as a carer.
“Doing the nails of a dead person really won’t be any different from doing the nails of someone who is alive,” she said.
Since launching the service on social media this week, Ms Kealey said she has been overwhelmed at the response. People have been praising the service while her own customers have even been leaving instructions about colours to be used following their own deaths.
The Derry woman said she intended travelling to funeral homes and wake houses and would be willing to work with local undertakers to provide that last loving service.
