Welcome to the fourteenth edition of Morticians’ Monday Morning Mashup, 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!
Solace Launches Retail Urn Website
Remember Solace, the online cremation-only service founded by former Nike execs? It’s been a few months since we shared their customer-centric, low flat-fee cremation with Connecting Directors readers. Now it seems Solace has added to its simple $895 repertoire of pickup, cremation, paperwork, and return of cremains (death certificates are extra). Their recently-launched Solace Urns offers two urns created from 3D-printed clay, priced at $195 and $595.
Four Hired, Four Fired Over Suspected Conflict in Missouri Funeral Board
According to a recent Associated Press report, Missouri governor Mike Parsons has appointed four new members to the state’s Board of Embalming & Funeral Directors — after terminating four others. The AP report explains that the firings and hirings came amid complaints from funeral home owners that these members “had beefed up inspections too much after one crematory was found in such disrepair that body fluids were leaking onto the floor.” There’s SO much more to this story, and Kansas deathcare attorney Bill Stalter has done a great job of telling the tale in his blog — including why this particular governmental authority is nicknamed the “Gotcha Board.”
FAKE NEWS!!!!!
Fake news, misinformation, opposing viewpoints, call it whatever you want- it’s everywhere! In fact, we’ve even heard people say, “live streaming funeral services is so difficult!”
Well well well, Get some mustard and a little bit of bread, cause that’s bologna!
MemoryShare makes it simple for your funeral home to live stream, save, and get the most out of every service. The app makes it super easy, and you can record your full service with the touch of a button. Also, by sharing these streams with your community, you showcase your excellent service and create name recognition with the viewers.
Two things funeral homes need in 2022 are visibility and increased call volume. MemoryShare provides both of these things as well as a team of REAL people you can talk to if you ever run into trouble.
Don’t believe the lies! Learn more about MemoryShare today!
In Poland, One-Man-Show Funeral Organizers Dress Bodies on Desks in Barns
Thanks to an outdated 100-year-old law, anyone can get into the funeral business — and we do mean anyone, with or without proper licenses, facilities, or training. According to this article, the pandemic proved fruitful for these rogue would-be directors, some of whom hired folks to pick up bodies (for $25 of unreported income a day) in the same personal vehicles they use to transport vegetables or take their families to church. They’ve tended to bodies on office desks and used unrefrigerated barns for storage. Thankfully, legit deathcare professionals are campaigning to change the rules and “put a nail in the coffin” of the unregulated underground funeral industry (pun intended).
Share These Christmas Superstitions With the Fam if You Want to Ruin the Holidays!
Remember Debbie Downer from Saturday Night Live? The lady who ruined every gathering with her negativity about, well, everything? Well, if you want to be a Debbie Downer this Christmas, just start telling your guests about these anything-but-merry Christmas superstitions gathered by Chris Raymond of Funeral Help Center.
According to Chris’s list, many folks believe you WILL DIE in the next year if you:
- Hear your cat speak at midnight on Christmas Eve,
- Are the first person to excuse yourself from the table after a Christmas meal,
- Burn the Christmas cake you baked (looking at you, Sharon Weiss),
- Cross an open field on your way to a Catholic midnight mass,
- See a headless shadow of yourself in the light of a Yuletide fire,
- Form a pile of salt on Christmas Eve that disappears overnight, or
- Halve an apple with only four points in its core.
With that, we at Connecting Directors wish you intact salt piles, mute cats, and five-pointed apple cores this holiday season!
