Modern Death

You’ve probably heard the cliques’: what goes around comes around; everything old is new again …  While these sayings may have more than a bit of truth about them, it “ain’t necessarily so” in the funeral industry where non-traditional is catching on.


Baby Boomers are the catalyst to this change, thanks to “thinking outside the box” and wanting a service that is unique to their lives. Themed funerals are starting to take off, and services are becoming memorial events.

 
In Texas, one funeral home director decided to offers some options to the traditional funeral home. Funeral Director Jeff Freidman operates Distinctive Life Funeral Home, (yes, a traditional funeral home) in Plano, but he has also set up a storefront in Richardson Texas where you can shop for grandma’s casket in a nicely lit, comfortable showroom with real music playing. Distinctive Life also has several vans equipped with a selection of urns, many unique and creative (A floating urn anyone?) along with a computer on which you can view and select the casket you’d like without leaving home.

At Adams Funeral Home in Los Angeles, mourners simply pull up to a bank teller-like window and push a button. A curtain raises, music plays and you have a few minutes to say your good-byes to the deceased.

Wade Funeral Home in St Louis has become known for their themed viewing rooms, offering a familiar setting like “Big Momma’s Kitchen” where family and friends can gather in a homey 1950s style kitchen as a platter of fresh fried chicken waits on the stove.

Hodges Funeral Home in Naples Memorial Gardens offers family and friends the opportunity to sit and reminisce over a glass of wine in their wine bar providing a more relaxed and calm way to mourn and remember. Amid comfortable chairs, high top tables, and racks of wine, this modern wine cellar provides a more laid-back, tranquil vibe than your average funeral home viewing room.

The Neptune Society, the largest cremation-only provider in the U.S., takes cremated remains and mixes them with cement before placing them in a mold. Once the mold is formed, the shaped piece is then taken down to the world’s first underwater “cemetery”, actually a cremation memorial park, and placed on the Atlantis Memorial Reef with a memorial plaque.  There, the molds become a permanent part of the ever-changing man-made reef.

You can even light up the sky when the Celebrate Life Program mixes your ashes with phosphorous to create a private fireworks display for family and friends.One things for sure, Boomers do not intend to go “quietly into that good night” – at least not without some serious shake up of the traditional, and a touch of individualized flair on the way out.
~ Joy

From Cask to Casket: A Wine-ing Approach to Celebrating the End of a Life

I have to say, it’s not often that my two main interests – wine and end-of-life issues/cemeteries – coincide, so this is an opportunity I could not resist reporting on.

Hodges Funeral Home - Naples

It seems that Hodges Funeral Home dignitymemorial.com/hodges-funeral-home-at-naples-memorial/en-us/index.page

in Naples, Florida believes that grieving is as much about celebrating a life as it is about the end of it. That is why the business had a wine cellar installed in the basement last month.

Let’s face it, few people want to go to the funeral home, and most just want to move through as quickly as possible. But now those attending visitations, wakes, and services at Hodges, in southwest Florida, have the option to meet in the wine cellar to remember the departed in a less traditional setting.

The Wine Cellar

Most people, especially those under 30, would prefer gathering with family and friends in a comfortable atmosphere, maybe with a glass of wine in hand, and share their memories of the departed. It’s a different way to grieve, and that’s what the wine cellar offers.

While it is not traditional, nor does it meet old-school funeral ethics, it does provide a more relaxed and calmer way to mourn and remember. Amid comfortable chairs, high top tables, and racks of wine, this modern wine cellar provides a laid-back, tranquil vibe.

Of course, this is still about honoring the deceased, but this approach sure beats that line of chairs in front of the body, in my opinion. And no other funeral home is known to have a wine cellar, so this is definitely breaking new ground … (There is no mention of what wines are offered, but I’m assuming Bone Dry Red and Two Angels Petite Sirah are not in the line up: but maybe they should be …)

Hodges Funeral Home is not shy about blazing new trails. They also offer catered reception services as part of the Dignity Memorial Community. (Dignity Memorial www.dignitymemorial.com

has over 1,800 funeral homes in the U.S.) A reception can be held at the funeral home, or any place you select. Breakfast can also be ordered for the family the day of the funeral, and delivered at a home or church before services.

One of Hodges Traditional Rooms

For those who believe the traditional way is best, Hodges will continue to offer the standard funeral home experience. But for those looking for a new and innovative way to mourn – the wine cellar seems to provide a modern answer.

Hodges Wine Cellar

If this venue is successful at Hodges Funeral Home, expect to see other Dignity Memorial-owned funeral homes offering the “Cask to Casket” experience. Could this be the trend of the future?  We can only raise a glass, and hope.

~ Joy