Life in the Garden

Matters of Life and Death

funeral service

George Carlin: Dust in the Wind

From the George Carlin Website
georgecarlin.com

Earlier in July, Carlin’s daughter Kelly and his brother, Patrick, spent a weekend scattering his ashes at his favorite haunts around the country. They stopped in front of the nightclubs he played in New York City, and sprinkled his ashes over the water at a summer camp in New Hampshire where, as a child, Carlin received a necklace for winning the drama competition. He was wearing it the day he died.

Accompanied by old friends from the neighborhood, they also stopped at a park on the edge of Harlem where Carlin grew up.

“The wind blew him around a little bit when Kelly threw his ashes,” Patrick Carlin recalled.

“It was beautiful and touching. I really felt like my dad was smiling very large at the moment,” she said. “I knew I was doing him right.”

Read more on ceremonies and helpful tips for scattering ashes.

The Softer Side of Sears

For Funeral Directors that worry about competition from Costco, internet retailers, and maybe even Wal-Mart. Remember, it’s all been done before.

Vintage Sears Catalog:

vintage sears funeral advertising

At the turn of the 19th century, budding retailers Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck breathed new life into a stagnant funeral industry by introducing mail order funeral products. Before this time, extravagant monuments, gravestones and similar goods were only afforded to the affluent and wealthy.

But they had a plan. Since their regular merchandise catalog was growing in popularity, they wanted to expand into a market that everyday working people would need. Sears, Roebuck & Co started selling marble tombstones, monuments, tablets and markers at half the cost of traditional funeral parlors and monument makers.

Sears tombstone

At its inception, Sears’ “Monuments & Tombstones” catalog offered markers starting at $4.88 and tombstones at $7.40, making them extremely affordable. The products were manufactured and shipped from Vermont in about four to six weeks.

What’s amazing about these funeral products is the craftsmanship. Though these were obviously designed by hand, the graphics are so meticulous. Customers had several varieties from which to choose including hearts, shamrocks, religious symbols and even Heaven’s gates. The block lettering was simple and elegant.

Speaking of craftsmanship they appealed to the Woodmen of the World members to honor the brotherhood with a Sears Monument. You may have seen the tree trunk style stones at the cemetery.

wood man of the world grave stones

Unfortunately, just as the regular Sears catalog went defunct, so did the “Monuments & Tombstones” publication. By the early 1900s, Montgomery Ward also started selling funeral products via mail order too, but with a better payment plan than Sears.

Montgomery Wards Tombstones

Within a few years, as the United States entered World War I and subsequently World War II, mail order sales dropped significantly. In 1952, the catalog ceased publication.

Nonetheless, the advent of the Internet gave rebirth to mail order funeral products. Today, there are an endless number of websites that have urns for sale, headstones, caskets, funeral keepsakes, and memorial jewelry at a fraction of the cost at local funeral suppliers.

 

Cheryl Thompson Morrow Pt. 2

More with Cheryl Thompson-Morrow of Thompson Funeral Home, Broadman, OH.

20 Years Later: “It’s been a good career choice, the initial transition was difficult, because many of the families insisted on working with my father, and weren’t accustomed to a female funeral director.

On Technology: “Technology has really freed our time up, in that in the old days, before we could forward calls, my dad would stay home all weekend to catch the phone.”

Cheryl is uncomfortable with casket retailing on the internet, and would like to educate her clients regarding funeral costs and the value of a funeral service. “I want to do more with our website, add educational content and market our services.”

On Cremation: “You know, when I started working at the funeral home, my dad had one urn, and it was in a dusty box. Unopened.” Despite being in a pretty traditional area, cremation is definitely on an upswing. “March’s services were all cremation.” Most of Thompson’s cremation families choose traditional viewing with casket rental at the funeral home. Cheryl usually discourages the scattering of ashes until a later date, to make sure the family is comfortable with the decision. It’s pretty mixed on families that choose burial, or to take the ashes home.

On Changes in the Industry: “Besides cremation, families are buying more keepsakes, and there’s more interest in pets.” It used to be that the funeral homes in our area were denomination specific, there’s more cross-over now. Besides more women in the funeral profession, I see a lot more women in the clergy. The other day, I realized that we were doing a service with a female funeral director, and two female funeral clergy…there was a time, that was unheard of!”

“We haven’t had a lot of requests for catering services or food.” Although, she did have a family from California that wanted to bring “snacks” in before the visitation, and wound up setting up a full buffet and bar. It was no problem she said, but the family took care of everything.

Cheryl sees funeral service as a life long career and says, “I’ll probably work until I die.” “My dad never got to retire, and in the my pre-kid days, I was at the funeral home ALL the time, even coming in on weekends I didn’t have to work, just to make sure everything was alright.” Cheryl and another funeral director trade weekends on call.

“Now, I realize life is too short! We have a cottage at the lake that’s only an hour away and I want to spend time with the kids, while they still want to!” Cheryl has two children, 11 and 12.

Women in Funeral Service, Cheryl Thompson-Morrow

cheryl thompson-morrow

Today’s Female Funeral Professional (known from here on out as FFP, you try saying that three times real fast!) spotlight is on Cheryl Thompson-Morrow with Thompson Funeral Home. Thompson Funeral Home is one of five other funeral homes in a two mile area in Boardman, OH., close to Youngstown.

Cheryl’s grandfather Clifford L. Thompson, started the firm in 1932. Cheryl hadn’t really considered entering the family business and her father, Clifford L. Thompson, Jr., who worked at the funeral home didn’t exactly encourage it. Why? Because it was a man’s world. But as Cliff Jr.’s health began to deteriorate, and when it became clear that his son would choose a different career path, Cheryl’s dad did notice that more women were entering the field of funeral service and maybe Cheryl, who was taking classes in the medical field, might be his future.

He told her that if she planned to go to mortuary school, she’d better get on it. This was the 80’s and Cheryl was trying to figure out what she was going to do with her life. She was working as a medical assistant and funeral service seemed like a good fit with her background, so she went to mortuary school, not realizing that within a few short years, she’d be running the business. In 1989, Cheryl graduated from the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science, and did her internship with her dad, a “difficult transition”, for the young girl and her father who was handing over a Life’s Work to his…daughter.

“That was tough”, she said. “He continued to work at the funeral home, even in declining health, he was there everyday.”

And then, one day, he said the magic words, “Whatever you think, Cheryl.” The turning point. He died shortly after at age 60 in 1997.

Next: Part Two with Cheryl Thompson-Morrow.

Paddle Out

No, not this kind, although we are drying out.

New Orlean flood

This kind:

surfer memorial

The Hawaiian inspired ash scattering style at sea.  So beautiful.

And on a lighter note, In the Mailbox: POSTCARDS FROM MAUI

vintage hawaii postcard

The parents are in Hawaii and here’s a quick note from Dad, verbatim:

Hi Lenette

I’m trying to figure out how to use Mom’s lap top with out much sucess. I like our desk top much better, but as you know, change is bad.

Our surfing lessons went really well and we have some pretty good pictures, but I found out I’m not 25 any more. Everyone was pretty score the next day. Larry fell off his surf board and received a small cut on his arm from the croal but is telling everyone the cut is from a shark attack. Mom was the best surfer by far of any of us and “Dirk” ( who is gay we’re sure) said Mom did a really good job.

Everyone is having a great time and to day we are renting snorking gear.

Hope all is well back home….Cya Sunday…Dad

A hui kaua