The Man In the Box
Sometimes, we’re just not prepared for what we think we want to see.
Published on August 1, 2013 by Mark Rubinstein, M.D. in Tales from the Couch
Some years ago, I was contacted by an attorney and asked to evaluate his client, the plaintiff in a lawsuit. I’ll call her Mrs. Jones, a 35-year-old widow, who was suing a funeral home.
A year earlier, her presumably healthy 40-year-old husband, died suddenly of a massive heart attack while at the gym.
At our consultation, Mrs. Jones was obviously berea...
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Regardless of the shock that the widow suffered (which I can well understand), wouldn't you expect a funeral home to have some respect of the deceased? That's what all these funeral ceremonies are for. That's what a decent looking casket is for. That's what the elaborate interior of the casket is for. For heaven's sakes! That's what the funeral home owners are getting paid for, and not too little!
If it doesn't matter how a dead person gets buried, then why have a funeral in the first place? Then why not just take a shovel and get the dead body covered with some soil and have it done with?
Mourning relatives want and pay for it that the body of their beloved is treated with respect. When this does not happen, they are cheated in the most despicable way.
I am not an advocate of expensive caskets, elaborate ceremonies, and lengthy rituals, but we even bury our pets with more respect than this funeral home buried this man.
Shame on this funeral home! Shame on this jury!