http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/07/cremation.ap/index.html
The funeral home worker hid a dead baby in the pants of a dead man to avoid a fee? What does this mean? I don’t get it.
I take it that the baby had been sent in for cremation, and the funeral home worker thought she could save money by having it hiding it in the man’s pants and just paying for him to be cremated, instead of paying to have the baby cremated seperately. Presumably, afterwards, she would have just given the family a little of the ashes with no one the wiser.
So, how does Barkley deal with this issue in the future? Applying for a job, “Have you been convicted of …”. “Yes, abuse of a corpse”. Kinda puts a crimp in things right there.
Wow. I guess I didn’t understand why she needed to save the fee. The family was paying it anyway. That’s the most bizarre twist on the subject of greed I’ve seen in quite some time.
I’m assuming the point was that she could charge the family the $50 and then pocket it on her side.
Right. For a lousy $50. Utterly pathetic. I wonder how many times she did this?
They may not have paid it-- I know several funeral homes that don’t charge for the funeral of a child.
Like everyone else, funeral home directors are saddened by the death of a child in the community, and providing their services for free (or for a greatly reduced cost) is something practical they can do to help a family out.
(Also, young parents who just lost a baby generally don’t have a lot of money set aside for this kind of expense, unlike people in their 40’s and 50’s losing an elderly family member-- and by being kind and considerate and helping someone with the loss of their child, you can be darn sure they’ll remember you when their own older relatives pass away.)
I write a lot of obituaries at my newspaper, and I was thoroughly confused about this at first. I deal with the two mortuaries we have in town on a daily basis and they all have their own crematories and don’t pay a fee except for the fuels that they use to burn the bodies.
Apparently in Texas (correct me, someone, if I’ve misread this) the crematories are state-run? I’m not sure, really. It’s very confusing to me. But I know for a fact that both of the mortuaries in town offer very, very cheap burial and funeral arrangements for children under like 13. Word gets around, and it’s good advertisement.
It always breaks my heart a little bit having to write an obituary for anyone under 50. The other day I got one for a 12 year old boy and a 5 month old girl in the same day. Sad.
~Tasha