Cemetery
A lengthy legal case of about four years that involved a Service Corporation International (SCI) cemetery and also included a well-known and succesful business family has ended in a disinterment ruling of the keepsakes and ashes in the grave according to this article from Oregon Public Broadcasting titled “After cemetery sold the same plot…
When it comes to a cemetery on a river bank and the river has moved the shoreline back over 20 feet in the past 30 years and you now realize that in the next couple of decades, as the erosion continues, you will be losing the cemetery — and the remains buried in…
American monument dealers have become accustomed to dealing with the rising cremation rates in the country and the dwindling sales opportunities for cemetery monuments that fact brings. But now, according to this recent article from CNBC titled “An industry focused on death faces an existential crisis”, family-owned monument dealers have seen United States…
Amy Cunningham is a friend of mine. She was a writer/editor who has become a funeral director and she has teased me that I was a funeral director who has became a writer/editor with Funeral Director Daily. This second career for Ms. Cunningham has brought her to the forefront of a growing movement…
I grew up in the very homogeneous community of Alexandria, Minnesota. From this Wikipedia article you can see that the city at the time of my growing up had a population of a little over 6,000. Today, according to the same Wikipedia article the community’s “metropolitan area” – those that live, work, and/or attend…
According to details in this article from CBC Canada Royal Air Force glider pilot veteran Gordon Patrick was buried at the Green Acres Cemetery outside of Winnipeg, Manitoba, following his death in 1973. For whatever reason, probably at least partially because he was estranged from his daughter, Elizabeth Patrick, who lived in Great…
Imagine it is lunch time at the funeral home you work at when you get a call from the hospital two miles away that you need to immediately bring the best casket you have to the hospital. And, by the way, it is for the President of the United States. That’s the call…
Golf courses, in this day and age, are incredibly expensive to build. It’s not only the land acquisition costs but you have the costs involved in shaping the fairways and the greens, building a clubhouse and equipment garages, and, of course, the holding costs while the landscape grows into a playable course. I…
The election of Democrat Socialist Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of the city that many refer to as the “World’s Financial Center” has brought about questions on what might change. Most of those questions deal with financial issues such as taxes and benefits. From the perspective of Death Care and funerals my thought process…
Service Corporation International Chairman and CEO Thomas Ryan made some interesting comments in his opening statements in last week’s SCI Earnings Call. And, I wonder when looking at the long-range perspective if these comments portend an increasingly successful future for cemeteries and less of that future for traditional funeral homes. Here’s some of…
