Graveside Ganja & Bizarre Displays | 4M #252
Welcome to the two-hundred-and-fifty-second edition of Morticians’ Monday Morning Mashup, 4M #252, 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!
Nothing to see here
One might assume that if a country’s deathcare business grows by 22% in just six months (37.5% in the first quarter alone) that the death rate has risen … right? Well, that’s not the case in Russia. Nyet. Although the number of deathcare companies rose from 995 in January 2026 to 11,500 in June, Russian news outlet Kommesant says the sharp increase is due “mainly to deregulation and the splintering of existing businesses rather than rising demand.” There was no reference in the article to the horrific ongoing war against Ukraine, which obviously has absolutely no impact on this at all.
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A night to remember
Last week, family, friends, and fans of singer Oliver Tree, who died in a June helicopter crash at just 32 years old, gathered for a “quirky” celebration of life that included an interesting tribute to Tree’s alter-ego characterizations. Per Page Six, “In front of the stage, three mannequins dressed like the singer — sporting bright windbreakers, sunglasses, cowboy hats and blunt bowl cuts — laid in coffins in a bizarre display.” The event was heavily promoted concert-style, boasting guest speakers, “unreleased” video content, and “much more” per the memorial poster (above).
Drones for deathcare
A funeral home in Ireland has launched (ha! Pardon the pun.) a new service for scattering ashes: a specially equipped drone. Funeral director Sean Lynch developed the idea after hearing from families that shifting winds often interfered with their cremains-scattering processes.
Minnesota mortuary laws updated
Several of the decisions reached during Minnesota’s 2026 legislative session will impact the state’s deathcare professionals. The following updates took effect on July 1:
- New requirements and changes to reciprocity rules will make it easier for qualified morticians to obtain a license in the state
- The maximum time a body can be kept in refrigerated storage is raised to 14 days from six days.
- Proper disposition must take place within 14 calendar days (previously within “a reasonable time.”
Better than urns?
A funeral home that accepted a heavy UPS package that they believed contained a shipment of urns were quite surprised to find that the box was filled with weed — 27 pounds of it. Apparently, the sender had hacked the funeral home’s shipping account to mail the box to an address in Portugal, so the label on the box showed that it was coming from them. When the package was disputed and “returned to sender,” it was returned to the funeral home, not the marijuana’s actual shipper. While there are probably several ways one can imagine a funeral home could put the package’s contents to good use, we’re pretty sure they turned it in to authorities.
