Welcome to the two-hundred-and-fifty-third edition of Morticians’ Monday Morning Mashup, 4M #253, 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!
$4 million per floor?
The president of Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home recently shared details with Worth magazine about the five-floor facility’s $20 million renovation (and a lot of other really important stuff, but $20 million is a lot and therefore 4M-worthy). Worth reports that nearly all five levels received upgrades, including “marble floors, Venetian plaster and a rooftop terrace called The Terrace at 1076, while preserving the character of the original chapel. Some of the new mechanical equipment was large enough that it had to be lifted onto the building by crane.” The renovation coincides with Campbell’s 125th anniversary, which is also pretty impressive.
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Mean people suck
Two stories about two awful people who both happen to live in Florida (no offense, Florida) taking advantage of grieving families popped up over the last two weeks, and they’re both sad. First, a West Palm Beach removal service employee stole and then pawned two wedding rings he took from an elderly woman’s body before delivering her to the funeral home. Then, a Hollywood, Florida mail carrier helped herself to a $2,600 winning lottery ticket that the ticket holder had mailed to a relative to use for a loved one’s funeral expenses. Both of these perps are facing theft, fraud, and other charges.
Six months later …
Last week, New York authorities reported that they found additional human remains in a Mount Vernon funeral home that was shuttered in January (!) after 13 bodies in various stages of decomposition and 17 boxes of cremated remains were removed. “It’s unclear whether the remains were missed during previous inspections or how they went unnoticed for months after the initial investigation,” wrote PIX11 news. It’s also unclear if the remains were cremated or in another state, but a photo with the article includes a partial view of a sheet-covered gurney.
Making amends
An Ohio state representative has introduced a bill that would not allow anyone to change a gender designation on a birth or death certificate once it is filed (with some exceptions). The exact language within HB798 reads “The sex designation on a death or fetal death record shall not be amended except on the order of a court of this state based on clear and convincing evidence that the sex designation was not properly and accurately recorded at the time the death or fetal death record was originally filed.”
