ENTER THE EERIE ENTREPRENEUR; SPIRIT MOVES FORMER MORTUARY DRIVER TO CREATE WEB STORE.

Byline: Donna Huffaker Staff Writer

When a heart problem forced Mark Chiavaroli to quit his job driving for a mortuary transport company, the 33-year-old Glendale man decided he wasn't going to totally leave the business.

Driving remains from homes to mortuaries was not just the line of work in which he met his newlywed wife, an embalmer, it's the driving force behind his idea for an online trinket company: The City Morgue Gift Shop.

``People shouldn't fear death. Especially in the U.S., death is such a forbidden topic,'' said Chiavaroli, who received a pacemaker late last year.

Sporting a piece of his inventory, a black T-shirt that reads ``Always a pallbearer, never a corpse,'' Chiavaroli said he expects to go online Oct. 1. He has secured business permits from the city and state and will work out of his Glendale home.

The former heavy equipment mechanic said although his disability limits his activities, it has forced him to think of a new way to support himself.

Plus, there's a market for unique, death-related items, he said, acknowledging his whole online concept may ruffle a few feathers.

``Hey, in this business you have to have a good sense of humor,'' he said.

At first glance, the bookshelf in Mark and Jennifer Chiavaroli's bedroom looks like a six-sided customized piece of furniture.

Home in closer, and you'll notice the 6-foot wooden case holding their TV, VCR and family pictures is a child's coffin. Spider web wall hangings dot the hallway of the couple's two-bedroom Glendale home, and a sea of skeletal figurines dominates their knickknack collection.

Holding one of her favorite items that will be sold online, a T-shirt that reads, ``I love the smell of formaldehyde in the morning,'' it's easy to see that Jennifer and her husband share a morbid sense of humor. Even bumper stickers on their Toyota sport-utility vehicle hint at the couple's love of the netherworld.

Wedged between facial outlines of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger are stickers such as ``Put the fun back in funeral'' and ``Where would you like to buried?''

So far, Chiavaroli's inventory fits mostly in a box he keeps under his computer desk. In it are chattering teeth, skeletons, T-shirts, key rings, eyeballs and skull earrings Jennifer made. People in the industry have always admired his quirky little trinkets, he said, so he hopes he'll be able to sell them on a Web site he's still designing.

``It's really quite a venture. I just started learning about computers six months ago,'' he said, adding he is taking classes at Glendale Community College.

Although the Los Angeles County Department of the Coroner has a walk-in gift shop, spokesman Scott Carrier said he didn't think an individual's online gift shop was problematic for the county. And besides, he said, there's no such thing in L.A. as a ``city morgue,'' so there's no copyright infringement there, he said.

Before delving into self-employment, Chiavaroli worked as a mechanic. A few years ago, he spotted an ad for a mortuary driver and decided to check it out, envisioning himself driving a hearse. He soon found out the job entailed transporting human remains to the mortuary from places as far away as Arizona and Mexico.

The money was good so he took the job, he said, smiling at his wife, Jennifer. The couple met at a mortuary more than two years ago, got married earlier this month and returned last week from a honeymoon in Las Vegas.

Plagued with heart problems throughout his life, Chiavaroli said he came pretty lose to being one of his own customers in 1998, when a doctor told him he had congestive heart failure. Turns out, the two open heart surgeries he received before his fifth birthday left scar tissue that impeded the electrical impulses within his heart.

Since January, he's received a pacemaker and undergone a few more procedures that doctors say, as long as he lives a relatively nonstrenuous existence, should lengthen his life by 30 years.

Laughing, Chiavaroli said he's been hearing about death since he was a child. In fact, a doctor in Minnesota once told him he'd never live past the age of 14.

Chiavaroli said he would like to call that physician today and tell him he beat the odds - but he has seen so many, he can't remember which doctor it was.

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Photo: Mark Chiavaroli, 33, is starting a Web site which will sell morgue-related trinkets and gifts.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer