Life in the Garden

Matters of Life and Death

funeral directors

The DJ stayed longer, and we bought extra beverages.

vintage postcard

When the family told the funeral director they planned to hold a pig roast fundraiser to pay the bill for a loved one’s funeral, he wasn’t optimistic.

He’d heard ideas like this before and knew the best intentions don’t always lead to the bills getting paid.

When the family called a few days after the memorial service, his doubts were confirmed.

“We’ve got some good news and some bad news,” the caller said. “The good news is, we had the pig roast and it was a lot of fun. The bad news is, we spent the money. The DJ stayed longer, and we bought extra beverages…..”

comic book art

Prices Subject To Change Based on Customer Attitude

Top 10 list of bad tenants in New York City includes the Hoarder and the Serial Evictee.

This list is heavy with people who live in public housing or otherwise receive housing subsidies. City employees also heavily populate the list.

Nikola Tesla

Because of his eccentric personality and his seemingly unbelievable and sometimes bizarre claims about possible scientific and technological developments regarding electricity, Nikola Tesla was ultimately ostracized and regarded as a mad scientist by many late in his life. Tesla died with little money at the age of 86 in a hotel suite in New York City in 1943. Later that year the US Supreme Court upheld Tesla’s patent number 645576 in a ruling that served as the basis for patented radio technology in the United States.

Abandoned machinery near Moscow, Russia

A standard three-drug sequence is used in the United States to execute prisoners by lethal injection. A shortage of sodium thiopental used in the recipe has sent U.S. states scrambling to find supplies, or alternative drugs. Sodium thiopental had been sourced through a company in London-until UK government officials put a stop to its export.

Today, the medical establishment, facing a huge shortage of organs, needs new sources for transplantation. One solution has been a return to procuring organs from patients who die of heart failure. Still, many people, including some physicians, consider this type of organ donation, known as “donation after cardiac death” or DCD, as akin to murder.

Funeral Director Closeout Urn Sale

vintage postcard

Greetings to our friends in funeral service!

We have a select group of urns on sale that will appeal to the families you serve.

Preview Catalog Page:

These styles are family favorites, and include bird-themed cremation urns, Going Home, bronze and copper urns.

Available in case pack (4) only. Interested?

Call now!

Women In Funeral Service: Pulaski Pt. 2

Deena Pulaski, knows all about the roller coaster ride of being a small business owner in LaPorte, Indiana .

Deena and her husband, Casmir own the Lakeview Funeral Home, Midwest Crematorium Center and a retail web site, theurnstore.com. Casmir is a licensed funeral director and embalmer. Deena is a licensed pre-need insurance counselor and mother of two boys, in high school and 2nd grade.

After graduating from mortuary school, Casmir worked as a funeral director and quickly saw a business opportunity as a trade embalmer serving a 60 mile area that covers both Indiana and Michigan. He’s licensed in both states. After building on his contacts, he added a crematory in 2005.

When the Pulaski’s decided to offer direct cremation to the public for $895.00, it wasn’t well received with the local competition. La Porte is a bedroom community of approx. 22,000 with three long established funeral homes in town, and at least 15 more in the surrounding area. Operators were less than thrilled when a year later the Pulaski’s moved in to a vacant lawn and garden center building on the busiest county road in the state.

“We always knew that we’d own a funeral home, but imagined that we’d purchase an existing business, and it would be later than sooner!” said Deena

“We just didn’t expect it to happen so soon, but when this place became available, we felt like we had to do it. ” The two-story building has lots of natural light, a wide front porch with adjacent property that can handle future development. The Lakeview Funeral Home is the only funeral home in LaPorte with it’s own crematory.

“When the weather’s been nice, we’ve been able to have some nice military services outdoors. The families really seem to like the change of scenery.”

The location has been good for the Pulaski’s. Competing with 100 year old firms in the area, Deena expected that it would take several years to build the business. “By our second year anniversary we had already surpassed our projections.” Casmir still has travels, but has been able to reduce time on the road and even savor a rare long weekend.

Cheryl Thompson Morrow Pt. 2

More with Cheryl Thompson-Morrow of Thompson Funeral Home, Broadman, OH.

20 Years Later: “It’s been a good career choice, the initial transition was difficult, because many of the families insisted on working with my father, and weren’t accustomed to a female funeral director.

On Technology: “Technology has really freed our time up, in that in the old days, before we could forward calls, my dad would stay home all weekend to catch the phone.”

Cheryl is uncomfortable with casket retailing on the internet, and would like to educate her clients regarding funeral costs and the value of a funeral service. “I want to do more with our website, add educational content and market our services.”

On Cremation: “You know, when I started working at the funeral home, my dad had one urn, and it was in a dusty box. Unopened.” Despite being in a pretty traditional area, cremation is definitely on an upswing. “March’s services were all cremation.” Most of Thompson’s cremation families choose traditional viewing with casket rental at the funeral home. Cheryl usually discourages the scattering of ashes until a later date, to make sure the family is comfortable with the decision. It’s pretty mixed on families that choose burial, or to take the ashes home.

On Changes in the Industry: “Besides cremation, families are buying more keepsakes, and there’s more interest in pets.” It used to be that the funeral homes in our area were denomination specific, there’s more cross-over now. Besides more women in the funeral profession, I see a lot more women in the clergy. The other day, I realized that we were doing a service with a female funeral director, and two female funeral clergy…there was a time, that was unheard of!”

“We haven’t had a lot of requests for catering services or food.” Although, she did have a family from California that wanted to bring “snacks” in before the visitation, and wound up setting up a full buffet and bar. It was no problem she said, but the family took care of everything.

Cheryl sees funeral service as a life long career and says, “I’ll probably work until I die.” “My dad never got to retire, and in the my pre-kid days, I was at the funeral home ALL the time, even coming in on weekends I didn’t have to work, just to make sure everything was alright.” Cheryl and another funeral director trade weekends on call.

“Now, I realize life is too short! We have a cottage at the lake that’s only an hour away and I want to spend time with the kids, while they still want to!” Cheryl has two children, 11 and 12.

Confessions of a Small Business Owner Pt. 4

redbud

The red buds are peaking this week, and it smells sooo good outdoors. The Urn Garden is downwind of two monster lilac bushes that are so fragrant.

lilac

And that my friends is the problem. Or is it? There’s no separation between work and home. It’s getting better, but when you cross the threshold at my place, you immediately enter our World Headquarters. My messy desk and file cabinet, work and living space all rolled into one, it’s the first site you see when you hit the door. It’s aesthetics really, and can easily be solved. Lots of people would ignore the clutter and crossover just for the opportunity to work from home, but there has to be a more attractive and productive answer, to partition it off somehow, I feel inspiration coming.

Listen to Your Gut: Spoke with a colleague today who worked for a funeral supply company and had taken on a line of the Chinese caskets. She really wanted me to take on a territory and help move the product, she’s good at what she does, works hard, and it could be a “great opportunity”. A nice addition to my business. When someone says “Great Opportunity” my radar goes off. Call me lazy, but I didn’t want to travel, and I’ve got my own challenges with distribution without adding the bulk of crated caskets to the mix. Not to mention the YEARS it would take to establish relationships with the funeral homes that were locked up in long-term dealings with their suppliers. If ever there was a breakthrough….I just couldn’t see it.

Today she informed me that after a year or two of that back breaking business, she’s moved on to what she’s really good at. Selling pre-need.

Another Revelation: Since I left my old job four years ago, the position has turned over three times! Makes you think…was I nuts to stay there eleven years? Nah.