Regulations
It was 85 years ago this past March when “funeral directors from across East Texas showed up. Dallas dispatched 25 doctors, 100 nurses, and 25 embalmers” to the small Texas oil boom community of New London. After the tragedy and according to this article , “morticians embalmed more than 200 bodies in the Overton American…
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Memorial Day where I grew up and continue to live, Alexandria, Minnesota, is the un-official start of the summer. My community is surrounded by lakes and Summer is special. . . . all of the seasonal residents move to town and the community is also filled with tourists through Labor Day. Golf and boating season…
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We are coming up on Memorial Day weekend. For me it is always a time for reflection on the good that America has done over the years on the world stage and a time to honor and respect those that were willing to put their lives on the line for others. That duty has always…
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“Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted,” It is something that always seems to be around the nexus of free enterprise and government intervention or regulation when it comes to the death care services of those poverty level citizens of our communities. The “It” is the debate about the value of what…
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We’ve written about the problem before in this forum. “The problem” being the lack of revenue for historic city and association cemeteries since the country’s cremation rate increased to a majority of dispositions. The increase in cremations has decreased cemetery sales in full body burial lots and interment fees. . . .as a matter of…
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There is a battle being waged over the human disposition method called “aquamation”, also known as alkaline hydrolysis or flameless cremation. But, most of us are just too busy or are comfortable with disposition in the form of earth burial or cremation to really notice it. I find it interesting in a world where everything…
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It would be safe to say that in Great Britain there has been a lot of discussion about the costs of death care among consumers and government alike. While it has been going on for some time and there is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic and the rise of Direct Cremation with No Services…
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Ohio Senate Bill 224 will make over a dozen changes to the state’s funeral and burial laws according to this article from Cleveland.com. The bill will do such mundane things as increasing the price to reactivate a funeral director’s license and it will also establish a more formal process for families to collect money from…
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It’s been a long-time since the 1995 court case where a Mississippi funeral home owner sued Canadian public funeral home company The Loewen Group for $5 million for what the plaintiff described as a “breach of contract”. The lawsuit led to a $500 million jury award in a Mississippi court and virtually put the Loewen…
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Over the weekend I conflated two situations and tried to make the argument that one situation could actually help the other. What happened is that I have noticed that almost all funeral homes of a larger case volume seem to be short professional staff. And, it’s not just in the United States — InvoCare in…
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