A.A. Rayner and Sons have been one of South Side Chicago’s most trusted funeral homes for over 62 years. Charles S. Childs Jr. is the current director of the funeral home and the third generation of the Rayner family that has proudly run the mortuary. Childs is committed to providing quality services for the community, but his heart has grown heavy in recent years. Childs has been a reluctant witness to the ever-growing numbers of young people who are murdered almost weekly in Chicago — and he struggles with the sad reality.
Childs walks to the preparation room where the body of a young man lies under a white sheet, his cold feet extending beyond the slab. “It’s an unfortunate situation regarding the number of homicides in our community,” he says, before instructing the worker preparing the body to cover the stiff dark feet. “We have a service for a young man who was 18 years old and was murdered last week. His services will be on tomorrow.”
Because of his business, Childs has a uniquely somber viewpoint to the tragic circumstances that often lead these youth to an all-too-soon arrival at A.A. Rayner and Sons. “It’s a decline in hope. Some of these kids don’t think they’re going to live to be thirty years old, so they do what they want to do until they can’t do it anymore,” says Childs, shaking his head. “We believed that the election of Barack Obama would give some of these kids a different viewpoint of life. But without there being places for them to work or get job training, they don’t have an opportunity for change — or a chance.”
Childs has a theory as to how and why these young people often find themselves at a point of hopelessness. “You have women trying to raise men,” he says. “And young boys turn to the streets because that’s where they believe their friends are. The families are devastated and you would think that the cycle might stop — but it just seems to perpetuate. The young man whose services are tomorrow? Some of his friends’ comments are [only] about retaliation. That just means another family is going to have to go through the same consequences.”
And as Childs makes the final preparations for tomorrow’s services, he’s reminded of another sad aspect of this vicious cycle. “It’s very saddening to have to sit in an office and see, instead of a nuclear family, [a family that] is separated or dysfunctional and torn apart,” he laments. “All during the time that this young family was dealing with this, I never saw his dad. I don’t know where his dad is. I’ve seen his mom and she’s heartbroken. That’s what happens to all of these families. It’s somebody’s son, somebody’s daughter and there seems to be no end.”
