I don’t know if it is just me or others see it too. For years funeral directors seemed to work in anonymity, but when someone called us we were always there to answer. However, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, I seem to think that funeral directors and morticians are finally seen in our society for the good we do. I also think that is a good thing. . . and that it will lead to better things in the future. […]
Today is August 17. Today should be my younger brother, Jim’s, 60th birthday. Instead I’ll spend part of the day where he rests at Kinkead Cemetery talking to him, telling him how much I loved him, and how sad it was that I didn’t get to see him grow old. You see, Jim, took his own life in May 1993 and never lived past 31 years of age. It’s one of my greatest regrets in life. . . that I […]
It will surprise no one that in the Covid-19 pandemic year of 2020, that life expectancy for Americans dropped by the largest decline since World War II. This article from the Associated Press also indicates that the life expectancy drop for Black Americans was the largest since the Great Depression and for Hispanics it was the largest one year drop in recorded life expectancy history. What might surprise you, and we have brought it up on this forum before, that […]
One of the things you realize as you get older is that there is a whole new generation of Americans working in your profession and molding that profession in a way that you would have never thought of. Some of that “molding” you may see as good for the profession and some of it you may see as “not so good”, but the fact remains that the new generation believes in what they are doing and the process they are […]
Sometimes at Funeral Director Daily we get too wrapped up in mergers and acquisitions, in financial news, and in things like new products to the profession. Those things are all interesting and are necessary to know if we want to make the services that we offer to the public profitable for us. But, it is also of utmost importance that, aside from profits, that those of us in the death care realm make a positive difference to those we serve. […]
I’m writing this post on Saturday morning shortly after returning from my Summer Saturday morning bike ride. I couldn’t help but think that many independent funeral home operators live in small towns and really get to know their community. . . . I don’t think I’m much different. Today’s column is a small-town Chamber of Commerce column. The community I live in is Alexandria, Minnesota. When I grew up here in the 1960’s and 1970’s it was populated with about […]
Park Lawn Corporation (PLC), the Toronto based funeral home and cemetery operator released First Quarter 2021 results last week. As expected the results were very strong as deaths from the pandemic in those months, especially January, continued to be high. Park Lawn Corporation’s net revenue grew about 26% to over $89 million for the quarter. Probably more interesting, however, was CEO Brad Green’s comments on the labor market, acquisitions, preneed, and revenue per case. In the press release from PLC, […]
Upholding to the Covid-19 social distancing rules of the University of Minnesota the graduating class and faculty of the Department of Mortuary Science had to come up with a creative way to make this year’s graduation ceremonies memorable for the graduating seniors. With indoor facilities on campus off limits for this year, the department worked with Minneapolis’ beautiful and historic Lakewood Cemetery to hold the ceremony there on Friday, May 7. Here’s a local news video and print article on […]
Service Corporation International (SCI) reported their 1st Quarter financial results last week and in it we found a lot of information and perspective that we believe is informative and, in our opinion, pretty good news as to how the American public is coming out of the pandemic with their actions on funeral care seemingly indicating that they are in line with how they felt prior to the pandemic. First of all, SCI’s results from the first quarter are indicative of […]
An online cremation provider has been opened in the Nashville and Middle Tennessee areas according to this press release. Lumen Cremation, LLC, makes a point to mention to consumers that every cremation will be performed by a well-established Nashville mortuary that owns its own crematory. Lumen Cremation touts in the press release that “. . . . is different because everything happens online. Families make their arrangements from the comfort of their own homes.” Lumen Cremation also touched on the […]
