Posted on 05/14/2017 12:09:59 AM PDT by Morgana
That section of Ga./Tenn. border is not exactly up scale Ritz. It looks like the funeral home was following procedures. And the family was a bunch of cheap skates. And Catoosa county is sort of a cheap skate area. Sometimes poor people will try to game the system. The so called sympathy vote. Mountains over molehills. Molehills over ant piles. Calling Barney Fife. There is injustice here.
The only fault of the funeral home is not covering up the gurney. They claim the person in charge okayed this set up..it sounds like they didnt want to spend the insurance money on the funeral..while others in the family did
This is a family dispute being taken out on the funeral home.
Georgia does allow rentals..their estimate is $300 to $700...and you can make your own box. They dont even require a box for burial. Its up to the cemetary
Watkins Matthews, Rancher From Bygone Era, Dies at 98
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/21/us/watkins-matthews-rancher-from-bygone-era-dies-at-98.html
APRIL 21, 1997
“After the public service, Mr. Matthews, dressed in faded jeans and a Levi’s jacket, a bandanna around his neck and his sweaty Stetson at his side in a plain wooden coffin, was, as he had requested, buried in the family cemetery next to his oldest sister, Annie Caroline Matthews, who died in 1881.”
—
As a kid, I fished in the river on his ranch as did my father (91). It’s about 30 miles from where I live. He was deeply loved by all the locals. His family were earliest of settlers. Mine are newcomers, we came in 1889.
I tell my kids to set me out by the curb and the county will send a truck when I start to stink up the neighborhood.
And you get what you want if you make plans. They should have called the VFW or AM Legion, depending on which he had the right to belong to. They would have helped.
In our day and time we’d think this funeral was from the turn of the century or 1800’s.
This is the country/gospel singer Joey Feek’s Funeral, a horse drawn hearse, a pine box, and a simple wooden cross, in a grave on a hill on their farm in Pottsville, TN. Even the Gaither’s were there. https://countryrebel.com/blogs/videos/114385155-rory-feek-shares-touching-photos-from-joeys-funeral
Bradley Walker who has MD performed Leave it there at the grave side. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE8DYloQ3nQ
We buried my brother who was not a Veteran, in March with less, cremation which is all the money he had could pay for, no visitation, we set up his Urn, some flowers, on a card table and some photos, as he had no money to speak of. Held our own Memorial, played a CD of Hymns and spoke a few Bible verses and commended his Soul to God. He had no life or burial ins. We spread the cost among my sister and some cousins and friends to do some refreshments bought along with the flowers from Wal-Mart and we arranged. For now his ashes will remain with my sister until she can place then on our parents graves in Olney, Ill from Pigeon Forge, TN.
‘it sounds like they didnt want to spend the insurance money on the funeral’
Do you have a link for this, or is it personal opinion?
A US Flag is placed over every Veteran who has a funeral, even when they are just dropped in the sea. It may be used for several men on that occasion. With a proper folded Flag sent on to their Survivors. Thousands of Service men never had a funeral, nothing left to bury after being blown up. Or mass graves were dug going as far back as the War of Independence and Civil War.
Any handyman can make a simple pine box. Some one had to pay for a plot, opening and closing cost. And those are NOT cheap. Want a stone that cost big bucks too. Start making payments if necessary, I’ve had to when we buried our murdered 16 year old, and were living pay check to pay check, in his school clothes.
Something rings wrong and sour noted with this story.
When the Flag is placed over a Veteran flowers are not used. They maybe standing around him/her but they are not on them. And family and friends buy them or send them.
Why do you believe a funeral home should spend money on A casket if there is a dispute about life insurance proceeds. They dont have to do free funerals
And yes...if you search and read all the articles you will find where the funeral home said someone authorized this set up.
IIRC..you will also find an article that said they were turned down elsewhere..but I may be wrong on that.
Misdirection. I didn’t ask about any of those issues. I asked only about your comment that it looked like the family didn’t want to spend the insurance $ on the funeral.
Do you have a link for that, or is it your personal opinion?
I have always thought that funerals etc. are for the living. The dead really don’t care. It’s just me but I don’t see the benefit of display for visitation or embalming. I also don’t like long drawn out funerals. I think it all just makes it harder for the family.
So when both my parents passed we went as simple and inexpensive as possible. Used the heavy cardboard caskets for both. They were beautiful and no one knew the difference. Total funeral costs which included lots of flowers was around $3200. They were in an ‘outdoor chapel’ at the cemetary that was provided with the plot. The grave plot and marker were separate.
Everyone thought the funeral was totally appropriate.
I guess you could question the standards of skirting or not skirting a gurney for one’s own sake of making the best of a bad situation PR-wise or charging a nominal fee for a loaner. What are they really out? Profit? Reputation? won’t make much of either of those over this business transaction.. or will they? Let the Free marketers decide and leave the dead out of it. ;-)
Just push me off on an ice floe in the arctic .. with some sunscreen and tabasco sauce..
“That section of Ga./Tenn. border is not exactly up scale Ritz. It looks like the funeral home was following procedures. And the family was a bunch of cheap skates. And Catoosa county is sort of a cheap skate area. Sometimes poor people will try to game the system. The so called sympathy vote. Mountains over molehills. Molehills over ant piles. Calling Barney Fife. There is injustice here.”
See I and others here would not have known this. Plus the fact funerals have gotten very expensive. Figured they were waiting for the life insurance policy to pay because they were strapped for cash and could not afford the 9 grand.
I’ve heard tell Wal mart is going into the business of selling affordable coffins but don’t know if that’s true. 9 grand seems a lot, for that one should have a sarcophagus and 4 canopic jars included free.
Have a better idea, have a “loaner coffin” available at all times that has tasteful yet well done advertising on the side. That way the family gets a good free coffin for visitation and you get your name out.
“”Rent a coffin. In Mexico they rent a grave.””
Are you serious? That’s priceless. Best post today!
“”Rent a coffin. In Mexico they rent a grave.””
Are you serious? That’s priceless. Best post today!
I’ll have to ask Mr. Mercat but I remember going to a small mountain town in Mexico in the 70s. Their big tourist attraction was a cave full of mummies. Land was so scarce in that valley that families would rent a plot of land to bury their loved one and after a few decades, the body or what was left of it, would be dug up and put in the cave. I think that the first century Jews did that too and had ossuaries. The mummies were pretty interesting. It was very arid and high altitude.
“”Just push me off on an ice floe in the arctic .. with some sunscreen and tabasco sauce..””
No - the cost of getting your remains there would be more than a pauper’s funeral would cost.
I have read a couple of other threads on this same subject and I still don’t know what was used to bury the poor man in. Viewing was one thing - how about burial? Or is he still in that funeral home until the family feuds are over?
Makes sense to me...Where there’s a will, there’s a way..
“”could not afford the 9 grand.””
That is just plain obscene. Madness for anyone struggling OR EVEN OTHERWISE, to pay that kind of money for a casket or coffin. The VA will furnish a wood box on request as a friend in CA did that last year when her husband passed away. He said she was not to spend a lot of money on a coffin and he didn’t want to be cremated so she sought the help of the VA and that’s what happened...a wood box.
My husband’s mother was a “pip” and when his stepfather died in the late ‘70’s, we found out she had paid for her funeral plans and plot at Rose Hills Cemetery in Whittier, CA but she NEVER PAID FOR his...they had plots together but his wasn’t paid for. We all had to chip in and pay for his funeral. She never batted an eyelash...Poor guy didn’t have a clue...
When she died in a horrible house fire 8 years later, we had her cremated as we knew he would not be happy with her by his side. Today there is an available plot fully paid for in that cemetery with no one to use it. We are 3000 miles away now and will be cremated; plans are prepaid. Probably have our ashes put in the VA cemetery...
Looked it up on google earth and it’s a much larger town/city than I suspected. Lots of businesses, main thoroughfare - interstate (?) - tons of homes. Looks like a nice place to get away from it all and not really in the boonies...
At least they had the forethought to get life insurance! These things take time to process. They just needed 3 months for the check to come in.
Granted don’t know how these things work, usually have then taken care of in advanced. Perhaps they should have pre-paid on a coffin like some companies offer?
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