Over the years I’ve heard from many consumers that their choice for a cremation disposition had nothing to do with price. Even though I heard that often, and believed the people that told me that, as a funeral professional it was always hard to fathom when it seemed that everywhere you turned you saw cremations advertised using “price point” philosophy. By “price point” philosophy I mean billboards, newspaper, or yellow page advertising by those in the cremation business stating “Complete […]
Arlington National Cemetery is known as “hallowed ground”. On May 13, 1864, the first burial of military personnel was completed there when Private William Christman was interred. Just over a month later Arlington officially became a national cemetery on June 15, 1864, by order of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. In the 158 years since that first interment about over 400,000 of America’s finest and their eligible dependents have found their eternal resting place in Arlington National Cemetery — including […]
If you don’t live in “flyover land” like I do, you are probably not even aware of the small rural churches that have been closed. Churches built by the pioneer throngs when they settled in rural America seem to have have run their course as it is now easier for rural families to commute to larger churches in nearby cities. However, not many of those closed rural churches, like the one featured in this story, have an AR-15 in the […]
As we age it is interesting how things from the past can be brought back to memory. It’s the season of political primaries and an article from the Ohio University Scripps College of Communication triggered a memory of mine back to the Summer of 1968. First of all, the article from Ohio University was in honor of alumnus Paul Fusco who photographed the Robert F. Kennedy funeral train. You can see the article here. The memory for me brings back […]
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 fact, many cemeteries are worried about being able to pay the upkeep bills just to keep the cemeteries open. In California, as you can see […]
The Prudential Company has the “Rock of Gibraltar” logo as an iconic brand differentiator. As a matter of fact the brand logo is one of the oldest and most recognizable in the world. . . . .first appearing for Prudential in 1896 when the company stated, “Prudential has the strength of Gibraltar”. . . . . According to the company’s website, the rock is an icon of “strength, stability, expertise, and innovation.” If you are in the cemetery or funeral […]
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 funeral providers if a customer signed a pre-planned funeral contract, but the family never used that particular facility. One thing it won’t do, however, is […]
Every day when I search for articles that relate to our profession I see multiple articles that deal with “Green Burial”. And, if you follow trends, you will know that the rule is that before trends are adopted in common use, they grow in media articles as people are learning about them. So, I see a lot of articles about “Green Burial”, but I have yet to see, at least in my area, an uptick in the practice. Back in […]
Less than a month ago Funeral Director Daily published this article that questioned if the days of funeral homes and cemeteries helping each other are over. That article questioned the competitive nature of each entity that now sold products historically affiliated with the other entity as a way of “full service shopping” for death care consumers. For instance, funeral homes are now, more than ever, actively selling monuments and cemeteries, now more than ever, sell burial vaults and urns. Nobody […]
In Minnesota being at the “Lake Cabin” from Memorial Day to Labor Day is cherished time. We are having our cabin kitchen remodeled this winter and expect to purchase new appliances to be in place by Memorial Day. It’s interesting as we look at appliances to purchase “availability dates” are a new variable in what we are going to be buying. “Availability dates” have up until this time never been an issue when buying products in my lifetime. However, the […]
