Business
I graduated from mortuary school in 1980. It seems to me that life was a little easier back then, traditions were pretty normalized, and funeral services consisted of a pretty “run of the mill” body preparation-visitation-funeral service-burial logistic sequence. Of course, prior to that service sequence a funeral director had to also meet with the…
Read More
You can’t get away from it anywhere. There is a lot of talk on the national political stages about “Green Energy” and the environmental movement. In the death care world we have been hearing that recomposition (the art of human composting) and alkaline hydrolysis (known by some as “cremation by water”) are going to be…
Read More
The Cremation Association of North America (CANA) says the 2020 cremation rate in the United States was 56.1%. That same reliable group says that within the next decade – in 2030 – the national cremation rate will rise to 72.8%. Considering the fact that the vast majority of cremations in the United States do not…
Read More
The other day I came across this article from a publication called Mic. The article was entitled, “I feel like a Survivor – inside the Funeral Industry’s 2021 National Convention”. To say the article was interesting. . .and even somewhat eye-opening might actually be an understatement. You can read the article here. The article is…
Read More
I came across this article titled, “It’s funeral homes’ busy season, here’s what to be careful for”. Seeing that title I didn’t really know what to expect so I looked into the article. It’s a short article with some good thoughts — one of those thoughts was entitled, “The Myth of Holiday Suicides”. Now, over…
Read More
Being retired has its advantages. I spend a little time every day reading three electronically delivered economy or financial focused newsletters I subscribe to. I then like to interpret and extrapolate the information that I get from them and use it in my personal financial decisions as well as my managerial decisions for the companies…
Read More
There was a day back when I was growing up that young attorneys would pass the Bar exam and then were instructed to “Hang out a shingle” to let the world know they were in business. That might have worked back in the 1970’s or 1980’s but today if that attorney is not reaching out…
Read More
Thursday night into Friday morning brought Minnesota’s first snowfall of the 2021-2022 winter season. It was light, but created slippery conditions outside that forced me onto an indoor treadmill run on Friday morning. My 2 1/2 mile daily run is punctuated by the fact that I have a lot of stamina. . . just not…
Read More
The numbers 11-11-11 have always been significant when I think of November 11. Yesterday was that day that we now refer to as Veteran’s Day in America or is referred to as Remembrance Day in Canada. Those numbers, 11-11-11, refer to the day and time that the cease fire that ended World War I in…
Read More
Back in about 1990 I made funeral arrangements for a 55-year old who died of a sudden heart attack. His widowed wife eventually talked to me about an idea for our funeral home which was based on the premise of what we now call “Aftercare”. At that time our funeral home did not have a…
Read More
