By Richard Rawlinson
You want celebrants to say good things well, but how do you want them to dress? If you’re opting for a civil funeral, do you want them business-like in a dark suit or to join in any sartorial theme requested by the departed? If you’re opting for a religious funeral, do you prefer traditional vestments or those favoured by the more progressive clergy?
A man suffered humiliation and distress at the hands of an airport security agent when she insisted on opening a jar containing his grandfather’s remains and then dropped them on the floor.
John Gross, of Indianapolis, was trying to bring Mario Mark Marcaletti’s ashes home from Florida and had them in his bag in a tightly sealed jar clearly marked ‘Human Remains’.
The 91-year-old’s remains had been divided up among family members after he died in 2002 and Gross had been given a share by his uncle during his trip.
He was confronted by the TSA [Transport Security Authority] officer and explained what was in the container.
‘They opened up my bag, and I told them, “Please, be careful. These are my grandpa’s ashes.”
‘She picked up the jar. She opened it up.
‘She used her finger and was sifting through it. And then she accidentally spilled it.’
As a third of the jar’s contents fell out onto the floor Gross frantically tried to gather it back up, a line of passengers waiting behind him.
‘She didn’t apologize. She started laughing.”
Full story here.
Hat tip to Evelyn Temple
For sale, a beach hut fit for an undertaker, Goth or melancholic. It’s the old mortuary at Saltburn-by-the-sea, it comes with its original slab, it’s Grade 2 listed and it’s on the market, guide price unknown. For further details, contact Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.
Hat tip Tony Piper
From NorthJersey.com:
As a funeral director, Joseph Stevens regularly heard mourners talk about how they had purchased marijuana on the street to ease their dying loved ones’ suffering. They would mention how the drug improved their ailing relatives’ quality of life during the last weeks of their lives.
Marijuana provides relief to people on their deathbeds while allowing them to remain conscious, capable of functioning and interacting with their loved ones.
“It was unbelievable, the stories I heard,” said Stevens, 50. Grieving relatives would say “the last conversations they probably would’ve never had if it wasn’t for marijuana.”
Read the rest of the story here.
ED’S NOTE: In our opinion, it’s high time medics engaged with the benefits of psychoactive drugs in end-stage care of the dying.