Pig Pickins & Odd Laws | 4M #227
Welcome to the two-hundred-and-twenty-seventh edition of Morticians’ Monday Morning Mashup, 4M #227, 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!
Challenging OK law
An Oklahoma custom casket company has filed a lawsuit to change the state’s odd law that makes casket sales the exclusive territory of licensed funeral directors. The owners of Caskets of Honor specialize in caskets they’ve purchased wholesale and wrapped with custom vinyl designs, and have sold their finished products to people across the U.S. and beyond. Their attorney argues that a casket is “just a box” and “serves no health or safety purpose.” He adds, “You shouldn’t need to spend years studying unrelated topics just to sell a box.”
From Coast to Coast, Funeral Homes Trust TMCFunding
Trusted by funeral homes and communities across the U.S., Treasured Memories® Community Funding is the leading crowdfunding platform designed specifically for our profession. With over $1 million raised and zero platform fees, it allows families to create meaningful memorial and support funds without added financial burden. Funeral directors stay at the center of the process — offering help, dignity, and guidance when it matters most.
Not-so-tough sledding
The folks who are “in the know” in Raleigh, North Carolina knew exactly where to go for the best sledding experience: the local historic cemetery. Yes, more than 50 sledders flocked to the steep hills adjacent to the resting places of the “most tolerant company” last weekend when snow blanketed the Southeast. These placid peaks near the gate to the graveyard are also prime properties for Easter egg rolls and, apparently, something called “pig pickins.”
Horrific outcome
A Pennsylvania mother who suffocated her two-month-old son by rolling over on the child in bed reportedly “smelled like embalming fluid” after smoking formaldehyde-laced marijuana (which goes by the street name “fry”) with her partner. Although this is a worst-case result of using formaldehyde to heighten the psychoactive effects of drugs, other effects can include neurological damage, seizures, lung damage, coma, and death.
A growing problem
Canada keeps breaking records — but not in a good way. An Ontario news outlet reported last week that in 2025, 1,710 bodies went unclaimed in the province. This is “more than triple” the number of unclaimed bodies in 2019. Although this number has steadily grown since 2008, a sharp increase began in 2020, when it hit a record high of 691. Like other deathcare professionals across North America, Ontario directors are looking for answers, calling the increase “disturbing and troubling” and blaming socio-economic factors like social isolation, family estrangement, and financial reasons.
