'The Bachelor''s Shawntel Newton: 'Brad Scares Easily'
 ABC |
Shawntel Newton, a 25-year-old funeral director from Chico, CA, was sent home on ABC's "The Bachelor" Monday night after a hometown date which included a tour of her family's funeral home. Now ETonline talks to Shawntel to find out what the dating world is like for a funeral director.
"Being a funeral director has challenged my love life a lot. When I go on a date with a guy, once we start talking about, 'Okay, so what do you do,' and I start talking about the funeral industry, it's like a step back. It's like, okay wow, that's different," says Shawntel.
Shawntel started her date with "Bachelor" Brad Womack by showing him around her workplace and demonstrating the embalming process: "I was really hesitant to ask Brad to sit on my table, but I thought, you know, he was so infatuated with the embalming process when we were in Vegas. He was asking me all these questions and [saying], 'Tell me about this embalming process, this is so intriguing.' [But] I think it creeped him out a little bit. It would creep anyone out who was not in the business."
However, she does not regret her morbid tour, saying, "I thought, you know what, I'm going to lay all my cards out for you, Brad, and if you are comfortable with this, keep me. And if not, I guess you're going to send me home."
Shawntel elaborates on her unusual profession, saying she didn't always love it. "I was like, oh this is weird, Dad, that you do this job." But as she grew older, she discovered that funeral directing was a way to combine three things she is passionate about: science, psychology and the elderly. "I was like, wow this is everything I really do enjoy. With the psychology part of these grieving families, that I'm able to be there for, whether it's an infant death or you know, a 101-year-old lady that we're celebrating, you know, I'm there for those families. The science part, I'm a licensed embalmer and I get to assist in autopsies, which is very interesting to me. And then you know, elderly people, we're serving them all the time and I love elderly men. I just think they're so cute and I get to help them a lot. It really makes you appreciate life. Sometimes I just think everyone should be a funeral director for a month."
Going on "The Bachelor" opened her eyes to life outside of Chico. "Not just the traveling and everything, but falling in love with someone that doesn't live in Chico. I was like wow, there is life outside of my little town of Chico and it's a good world out there and it did get me excited for new opportunities or you know, maybe even moving."
Even though she didn't find love on the show, Shawntel is happy to have made some close friends. Of the remaining three women, she says "I was closest to Chantal. It was kind of ironic when the first night we both met, we were like, oh Chantal and Shawntel, very uncommon names and we kind of already liked that. She was just a really great girl and she and I just had good, deep conversations."
As for which of the women she sees with Brad, she says "My personal opinion is he is in love with Emily. And I think he has been for awhile and I ignored that when I was with him. I think Emily's everything he wants, she has a child. And I think he wants to be the father to her child. And she's wanting to get married and have more kids and he loves that and wants that."
"The Bachelor" airs Monday nights on ABC.
