Samantha Rawlings is heading into her 19th winter in the Tahoe region, and her fifth year restoring dignity to the dead.
Rawlings is the sole funeral director at Truckee Tahoe Mortuary, where she is on call nearly 24 hours a day, every day. Her work centers on guiding grieving families through some of their most difficult moments while honoring the lives of those who have passed.
Rawlings arrived in Tahoe City from Portland in 2008 with plans to work as a ski patroller while pursuing a long-term goal of working in a medical examiner’s office.
“I talked to the medical examiner and they said, ‘You can do it two ways — go be a paramedic or go be a funeral director,’” Rawlings said.
She earned her EMT certification, which led to a 12-year career as a snowboarder with Palisades Tahoe’s ski patrol. During that time, she also bartended at Jake’s on the Lake in Tahoe City, a job she held for 18 years.
The turning point came during the pandemic.
“I was sitting on my couch eating Skittles during Covid, wondering what I would do if the restaurant never reopened, and how I could help while EMTs were being sent to New York,” Rawlings recalled.
Knowing she didn’t want to bartend forever, Rawlings began researching mortuary school. Before long, she was back on track with her original plan, attending a funeral service education program in Sacramento.
After speaking with the owner of Truckee Tahoe Mortuary, Rawlings was offered a job in 2021 before she even graduated. Working as a funeral director has given Rawlings a deeper understanding of humanity, particularly grief. She says learning how to read people in mourning is an important part of her job.
Now 40 years old, her favorite part of the work is restoring dignity — washing and dressing the body, styling hair the way the person used to wear it, and preparing them so their family can see them one last time.
“It’s an honor and a privilege to bring dignity back to the deceased and peace of mind to the living,” Rawlings shared.
Being a funeral director means being on call around the clock. Rawlings handles everything from paperwork and van maintenance to late-night calls and transports.
“Sometimes you’ll run a call late at night, come home, crawl into bed, and the second I do, the phone rings again,” she said. “A lot of times I just end up sleeping on the couch at the mortuary.”
Rawlings has a part-time assistant who covers weekend calls when she is unavailable, usually so she can spend time with her husband and two stepchildren. While the workload is heavy, Rawlings prefers doing most of it herself.
“Everything is done the same way, every time,” she said.
However, there are always plenty of helping hands on scene. The fire department or sheriff often arrive to help Rawlings with lift assistance from the home to the mortuary’s van to transport the deceased.
“Tahoe houses have a lot of stairs,” Rawlings explained.
Because she often works alone, Rawlings is frequently asked whether she’s scared or if she’s ever seen ghosts.
Her answer never changes: “Nope. I’m not scared. No one bothers me.”
Rawlings has remodeled the mortuary to feel warm and welcoming, filling the space with light whenever possible.
“It’s my little home-sweet-funeral home,” she said.
When she’s not working at the mortuary, Rawlings spends time with her family or works dispatch at Palisades Tahoe. A knee injury ended her days on ski patrol, but dispatch allows her to continue supporting patrollers, particularly during avalanche control operations.
Rawlings says she loves the life she has built in Truckee and the meaningful ways she is able to give back to the community she calls home.
