Stories from the Web
PA House Bill 1078 Introduced to Require Funeral Pricing Online
By State Rep. Jason Dawkins for PhillyVoice
Over a year ago, my grandfather, Billy Gambrel, passed away.
He was a larger-than-life figure in Frankford, a neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia, and the recreation center that bears his name is a testament to the decades he devoted to mentoring and supporting young ...
State of Colorado Issues Cease and Desist to Heritage Cremation
State Orders Controversial Cremation Company To Cease And Desist
By Brian Maass for CBS Denver
DENVER (CBS4) – A cremation company that some consumers labeled as nothing more than “body brokers” has been ordered to immediately stop doing business in Colorado following a CBS4 Investigation.
The Colorado Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration summarily ...
A Growing Movement Of ‘Death Doulas’ Is Rethinking How We Die
For end-of-life doulas, accompanying the dying is anything but morbid.
By Antonia Blumberg for the Huffington Post
Amy Levine has sat with many dying individuals in her capacity as a hospice social worker. She’s often felt the same, uncanny feeling as the moment of death approaches.
“All I can tell ...
Mississippi Funeral Home Refuses to Provide Services to Married Gay Couple
By Sandhya Somashekhar for Washington Post
For most of the 52 years he was in a relationship with Robert Huskey, Jack Zawadski doesn’t remember much in the way of anti-gay discrimination.
Not while they were trying to grow apples on a farm in Wisconsin. Not during the decades they spent as ...
A funeral home displayed a Vietnam vet’s body without a coffin over a payment dispute
By Brian Murphy for the Miami Herald
A dispute over payment led to a deceased Vietnam War veteran’s body being placed on a gurney — not in a coffin — during his visitation at a funeral home in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, according to pictures posted by his family members.
George ...
We’ve mastered weddings—but the funeral needs a lot of work
By Vanessa Quirk for Quartz April 4, 2017
The $20-billion-dollar death industry is ripe for disruption—and not of the zombie kind.
A typical funeral service today is remarkably similar to one from 50 years ago. A funeral home will display the embalmed body, perhaps in an open casket, while a ...
Bringing the Funeral Industry into the 21st Century
On April 23, 2017 the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Princeton is hosting their annual conference featuring guest speaker, Josh Slocum, Executive Director of the National Funeral Consumers Alliance (FCA).
He will deliver a talk on "Bringing the Funeral Industry into the 21st Century" which includes:
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Why is ...
Sorry, Nobody Wants Your Parents’ Stuff
Advice for boomers desperate to unload family heirloom
By Richard Eisenberg for Next Avenue, February 9, 2016
After my father died at 94 in September, leaving my sister and me to empty his one-bedroom, independent living New Jersey apartment, we learned the hard truth that others in their 50s and ...
FTC Covert Funeral Home Investigations Reveal Violations
February 15, 2017 via FTC News
Federal Trade Commission investigators working undercover in nine states found failures to disclose pricing information to consumers, as required by the FTC’s Funeral Rule, in 31 of the 133 funeral homes they visited during 2015 and 2016.
The FTC conducts undercover inspections to ensure ...
Unlicensed West Philly undertaker sentenced to two years' probation
By Joseph A. Slobodzian, Staff Writer for Philly.com
An unlicensed West Philadelphia funeral director whose mortuary was closed by the state in 2015 has been sentenced to two years’ probation and ordered to repay $5,000 to three families whose dead relatives were mishandled.
Blair Hawkins, 54, of Laurel Springs ...