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Funeral people are always saying that “funerals are for the living,” yet there is occasional evidence that they have developed an eerie affection, a genuine solicitude, for the dead, in whose company they spend so much time.
And California is one of several states where it is a penal offense to use “profane, indecent or obscene language” in the presence of a dead human body.
“The man who has the clergyman making the selection for his families does have a nasty problem,” wrote an undertaker.
For more information, Father Henry’s Web site is: www.xroads.com/~funerals.
Herewith a partial list of SCI’s deathless words: Casket Coach not Hearse Display Area not Casket Room Interment Space not Grave Opening Interment Space not Digging Grave Closing Interment Space not Filling Up Grave The gravedigger has a problem. He may not fill the grave with Dirt, he must fill it with Earth. His task will be preceded not by a Funeral, but by a Memorial Service. The decedent was not Sick, he was Ill. And he didn’t Die, he Passed On. His remains were not Embalmed, they were Prepared. There were no Mourners present for the Service, only Relatives and Friends.
Readers can check out the SCI facilities in their own communities via 1-800-9CARING.*
Having in mind the “do-it-yourself” efforts of certain American funeral reform groups, I asked whether in England it would be possible for a survivor to bypass the funeral establishment altogether and take the deceased directly to the crematorium. Such a thing actually did happen once in Mr. Ashton’s experience. Two young men drove up in a Bedford van and said they wanted to buy a coffin. Mr. Ashton told them he didn’t sell coffins, he sold funerals. The young men insisted they did not wish a funeral; their mother had died, they had procured a properly issued death certificate, they had been
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The Americans pioneered a fast-food, hard-sell approach to death. It is not the British Way.
It’s the ultimate commercialisation—the final tastelessness. McDeath is on its way to a funeral parlour near you. The Americans are here, although you may not yet have noticed it. We British don’t talk about these things. But there they are … gearing up to effect a huge change in the British way of death.
“It’s all about high-powered selling. The average member of the public only gets an inkling that the funeral home is American-owned when the final bill is sent out. The Americans are just like a lot of parasites eating away at the country.”
Equally strong is the desire to change established customs. It can be focused on funerals today and on something else tomorrow. The promulgations of these outfits hint at Communism and its brother-in-arms, atheism.
We learned of two burial committees connected with Friends Meetings, one in Ohio, the other in Burnsville, North Carolina. When a member dies, the committee supplies a plain plywood box, places the body in it, and delivers it by station wagon to the crematory or medical school. The next of kin pays for the cost of the lumber in the box plus crematory charges and obituary notices. There is no charge for the committee’s services, which include making the box. The total expense is generally under $250. The committee arranges for “help with the children or with food, a lift with the housework,
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Lisa Carlson’s Caring for Your Own Dead
Glen Allen Funeral Consumer Information Society of Virginia 804-745-3682 P.O. Box 3712, 23058-3712
