Sometimes it is difficult to take a public stand on an issue. You might feel strong one way or another, but you know that taking a public stance could possibly hinder the amount of business that you do. It is pretty evident in America right now that if you flew a Trump 2020 flag in your parking lot. . . you would show where you stand on the political side, but I would guess that it might cause some potential […]
For those of you readers who are not funeral directors, have you attended a funeral in the last six months? I haven’t. . . . and I cannot remember when the last time I attended a funeral was. Truth be told, since I have left full-time funeral directing and management, I have chosen to go to visitations much more than funerals anyway. I like the ability to just drop in – and out – as I wish and not sit […]
Louisiana funeral director George Charlet has summed up the cautions surrounding this year of COVID-19 deaths when he was faced with the idea of his mother going to a funeral. He commented on that idea by saying, “I just kind of wish people used more caution and took advantage of writing a condolence letter. It’s a weird place for me to be. It’s counterintuitive to my livelihood.” I think that is the paradox many of us in the funeral profession […]
This isn’t what I was planning to write about an hour ago. It’s Friday as I write this and earlier this morning I was on the treadmill watching CNBC with Jim Cramer as he was interviewing Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson. I thought the interview was very informative on how Starbucks was using the pandemic, that they had no control over, to analyze and pivot their business model to a structure that would be even better post-pandemic than it was prior […]
My first real recollection of a funeral was when my father’s mother, my grandmother, died when I was five years old. And, interestingly enough, even with my family in the funeral profession, what I remember about the “funeral” was not being allowed to go. I can actually remember being held at home with a babysitter, while my older brother who was nine years old got all dressed up and left the house with my parents. I can remember thinking, “What […]
Human emotions are an interesting dynamic. The human species can go in and out of emotions and many times not even help themselves in that process. Think about “fear”. You’ve been separated from your group on a camping and canoe outing and you don’t know where anybody else is. . . .fear might overcome you. And, you may not be able to shake that feeling of fear no matter how hard you try until somebody finds you or you find […]
Sometimes it is just a good feeling to be reminded as funeral directors as to why we do what we do. Very often, including on this site, we talk about all the business aspects of funeral service. However, I learned during my time as a funeral home business owner, if we follow the pretense of “Why We Do What We Do” the business profits and rewards just come with it. I’m talking about the frailty of grief and helping those […]
Within the last month a reader commented on one of our postings with the comment, “The process is always greater than the product”. I recently went through an automobile purchase for my 20 year old and can argue that I don’t really believe that statement to be true all the time. In this case, I believe we ended up with a product that we all like — him for sporty-ness, mom and I for safety and reliability — but the […]
