Megan Flaherty said she made sure her date was OK with escorting a girl in a coffin. Watch video
PENNSAUKEN TWP. -- For most high school students, a big prom entrance means showing up in a stretch limo or a classic car. But Megan Flaherty is not your usual high school student.
"I like being different," Flaherty, 17, said of her arrival at Pennsauken High School's junior prom Saturday.
Lying in an open coffin, Flaherty was slid out of the back of a hearse in front of her stunned classmates. She stepped out of the prop coffin on the hand of her date, Stephen Caldwell, and headed into the prom with a big grin on her face.
Megan Flaherty poses at the Pennsauken High School junior prom with her date, Stephen Caldwell, while her family friend and funeral director Dennis McGee, who drove the hearse, looks on May 6, 2017. Flaherty said the entrance was mostly about having fun, but it wasn't totally out of the blue. She wants to be a funeral director after college, following in the footsteps of family friend Dennis McGee. He was the one who drove the hearse and slid the coffin out, wearing a tuxedo and top hat.
Her older brother also took the hearse to his prom, though he didn't get out of a decorative coffin like she did. She decided to take it a step further.
"I made sure my prom date was OK with it," she said.
She knew the moment would create some buzz at the prom, but she never expected photographs of her entrance would be shared widely on social media.
Many who shared them seemed to like the idea, and some joked that she was "drop dead gorgeous" or "fresh to death." But others have criticized her decision, calling it insensitive and tasteless.
"Anything people do these days, people judge it," she said. "People have opinions."
Megan Flaherty poses in a prop coffin with her date, Stephen Caldwell, right, and her family friend and funeral director, Dennis McGee, outside her home before the Pennsauken High School junior prom May 6, 2017. Deptford High School prom (PHOTOS)
Flaherty said she gets that many people are uncomfortable with death and the things that come with it. "It's a natural thing of life," she said, and she's become very comfortable with it as she has gotten interested in mortuary work.
She's known for a year and a half that she wants to be a funeral director like McGee. She has learned about the work from him, and has helped him out at funerals. After graduation, Flaherty wants to attend Mercer County Community College's funeral service program.
"She just really took to it," said her mother, Susan Flaherty. "She thought it was an honorable thing and an honorable way to make a living."
Susan Flaherty loved her daughter's entrance. She said the family is not afraid to get a little theatrical because they're mummers. The whole family plays in a string band that marches in the New Year's Day Mummers Parade, known for its parodies and skits.
"We have that ability to put on a show," she said.
They wanted to get the show just right, Megan Flaherty said, so she, Caldwell and McGee rehearsed her removal from the back of the hearse at her home before heading to the prom.
Once she opened her eyes and stepped from the coffin at the prom, she got to see her classmates' reactions.
"I don't think they were really processing it," she said. "I'm a quiet person in school, so people didn't expect it."
Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.