The Undertaker

Publisher: Green Place Books

The Undertaker is Laura Del Gaudio’s lively story of learning the family business from under the kitchen table as a child. It is how she learned empathy in the face of unspeakable traumas while understanding the impact of trauma herself. Licensed at the age of 21, she became the 3rd generation in the family business which was located at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. Laura Del Gaudio has written a one-of-a-kind book, like the author herself who is authentic, a New York character as any. It is a toss up between “6 Feet Under” meets “A Bronx Tale” and The “Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade” meets “A Walker in the City.”

The Undertaker is a story about suffering, and also about family, community, healing, triumph and what it means to be loyal. The Undertaker is not only by a woman-for-women, but for those who want to better understand what it means to be a woman in a world where the future is female.

Laura Del Gaudio was raised in Brooklyn. Her formal education was from McAllister Academy of Funeral Service Inc. and St. John’s University. However her real education was from under the kitchen table as a child where she learned the family business. She was a third-generation Funeral Director by the age of twenty-one, and became one of the first women Funeral Directors in New York. In the downtown Brooklyn community, she was the first to lead a seminar on “Loss, Grief, and Healing” for the sufferings and traumas of life. She has one son and his family whom she adores. Still in New York, Laura Del Gaudio lives with her two cats, Muffy and Peanuts