Worm Fodder & Crypt Craziness | 4M #72
Welcome to the seventy-second edition of Morticians’ Monday Morning Mashup, 4M #72, where we’ll serve up bite-sized, easily-digestible nuggets of the deathcare news you need to crush conversations in the week ahead. Bon appetit!
NOR by any other name …
We know there are detractors (as well as supporters) of pretty much all of the growing number of disposition options. Natural organic reduction is just the latest target … yet, you have to admit the concept sort of lends itself to clever and/or humorous interpretations. For example, an op-ed in a California newspaper opines the recently-legalized practice with several interesting euphemisms of the resulting material, including:
- “worm fodder,”
- “family-friendly fertilizer,” and
- “mini-mound of mulch.”
Rest in Peace museum opens in Maine
A fifth-generation funeral director has opened a deathcare museum in Maine in part to share a collection of artifacts his family has collected over the last 120-plus years. The Rest in Peace (RIP) Museum in Island Falls is the brainchild of Tony Bowers, who will serve as the museum’s curator in addition to his role as funeral director in his family’s Bowers Funeral Homes. Displays include records books, clothing, and a tuberculosis casket.
Like Black Friday for niches
Most cemeterians can only dream of filling half its open spaces in a matter of hours — but that’s exactly what happened at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Earlier this month the cemetery opened its 17th mausoleum for purchases, and buyers started lining up at 3 a.m. to secure their sepulcher. More than 30 people selected their resting places from among 64 crypts available for $13,000 to $27,000 each. Interestingly, this response was described by a local outlet as a “slightly more stagnant start” than in 2020, when “the parking lot was filled until 10 a.m. where 90 crypts had sold in several hours, which was around $800,000 worth.”
Two countries in crisis
Although they’re facing vastly different situations, deathcare professionals in both China and South Africa are in crisis. South Africa’s escalating energy emergency has forced the government to carry out rolling blackouts, a practice they call “load shedding.” The practice has gone beyond an inconvenience for funeral directors, whose costs for fuel and generators to keep morgues cooled are becoming unmanageable. They’re struggling to keep from passing their increasing overhead expenses to their clients. One director was quoted as saying, “’It’s every undertaker for himself.”
Meanwhile, in China, coffin makers are struggling to keep up with growing demand that’s being attributed to a growing and much-debated COVID crisis. The BBC shares the following: “Some 80% of the population – more than a billion people – have been infected since China scrapped restrictions in December, according to leading epidemiologist Wu Zunyou. Last weekend China reported 13,000 Covid-related deaths in less than a week, adding to the 60,000 deaths it has counted since December.”
More than they bargained for
A vehicle being stolen in Chicago isn’t an unusual occurrence — even if it’s a van belonging to a funeral home. Last week, however, a bandit made off with a (running and unlocked) van containing the body of a deceased man, taking this crime to a whole new level. Thankfully, the van was located — but the body was missing. They soon found the body outside a home in a completely different location. At the same time, news outlets announced that a funeral director associated with the firm that owned the van was “on probation for unprofessional conduct and failure to account for personal property.” The outlet didn’t make any correlation with this statement to the van theft, though. The next day, a 23-year-old man was arrested and charged with possession of a stolen vehicle and abuse of a corpse. The body of the man, who was the father of 12 children, is now in the custody of the coroner’s office.
The secret’s out
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