Gone too soon: Zane Smythe, pictured just two weeks before his death
Posted on 08/03/2009 4:31:47 PM PDT by rawhide
A grieving mother who took too long to say goodbye to her dead baby son has been hit with an $146 penalty charge by crematorium staff.
Terrie Rouse could not bear to leave five-week-old Zane's coffin and spent an extra 10 minutes with him before allowing it to be taken away for cremation.
However the mother of three was later handed the fine - $14.50 a minute - on top of the standard baby cremation fee of $54 for her tearful final goodbye.
'The vicar asked if I would like to spend a bit more time saying goodbye," said Miss Rouse.
'I sat by the coffin for 10 minutes, telling my son how much we loved him and begging him not to be scared.'
Zane's unemployed father, Lee Smythe, today branded the charges imposed by officials from Milton Keynes Council, which runs the crematorium, as 'sick and disgusting'.
'Terrie was weeping hysterically. She just wanted a few extra minutes to say goodbye to our much-loved little boy. How could anyone be cruel enough to charge for this?'
The couple's funeral directors, Masons of Bletchley, said there was still plenty of time for the next funeral which was not due to take place until 50 minutes after baby Zane's.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Gone too soon: Zane Smythe, pictured just two weeks before his death
An angel....very sad:(
It's a family and community thing.
And in some places, it still is.
But business is business, and if you have 5 guys standing around for 10 minutes, it's a charge. Better to do your grieving at home, and not turn over your baby to a business that charges by the minute.
/johnny
Now THAT is cold.
It’s England. What do you expect?
Do they have funerals at crematoriums in England? Or was this funeral home equipped with a crematory? Even so, why would extra charges be needed?
Leave it to England to RATION grief.
Heartless!!!!!!!!
Is UK's present our future?
Cruel and heartless.
Bastards!
It’s just the heartless type of thing that would happen under obamacare.
God help us all.
This would be rough.
“Heartless!!!!!!!!”
Heartless? no (ok, maybe), but that’s irrelevant - it’s business. That’s why I love capitalism, you can even make a buck out of a dead kid’s crying mother if you know what you’re doing.
need I say "sarc?"
Prayers up for Zane's loved ones and may he Rest In Peace.
“It’s just the heartless type of thing that would happen under obamacare.”
Just the opposite, actually. O-care will take away the market forces that lead to efficiency, and useless people that don’t earn their keep will have to be carried by the rest of us. It may or may not be heartless, but that’s irrelevant. Want to grieve your dead child? go right ahead, on your own time, if you want do it on my time then bring your checkbook with you.
“Bastards!”
What the heck is wrong with you people? (not just you, KoRn) when the hell did you all turn into a bunch of lilly-livered bleeding heart liberals?.... TOUGHEN UP! the kid died, it happens.
The grieving mother is NOT entitled to do her grieving on anyone else’s time or dime. I’ll bet if this article was about the state causing financial hardship to the funeral director business by ‘subsidizing’ grieving time with taxpayer money the response would be completely different. Instead you all got suckered in with a picture of the baby, and the perfectly reasonable cost tagged as a ‘fine’..... Barnum was right, there IS one born every minute, and they all congregated in this thread!
Carry on.
/johnny
The villain in this piece isn’t a business; it’s a municipal council.
It's a business, disguised as a local gooberment.
/johnny
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