Years ago, I had a co-worker who walked into a family mess over a recently deceased family member. Several members of the family wanted to do a simple $3k situation. Two members of the family felt that was too ‘cheap’ and were escalating this to a $12k situation....even handing out the sheet how certain wealthy family members could afford $2k each on contribution.
This delay went on for two weeks, while the body sat on ice. This finally reached a level where family members were prepared to take the $12k from the dead guy’s bank account (savings), and suddenly the whole argument evaporated quickly...going back to the cheapo funeral.
My 92 year old mother died in November 2019. Not from covid.
We spent over $12K in a couple days for funeral expenses.
My brothers and I were disgusted how much it cost.
Here are just a few items I recall:
Flowers $750(three pieces)
luncheon for 25 people $600(not bad)
concrete vault $1800 (this goes in the ground)
Casket $1850(prices ranged from $750 to $18K)
church $250
Funeral home $6000(embalming, the wake, hearse, etc)
Brass marker for cemetery $1500 (to match my fathers in the adjacent plot)
The two things that pissed me off the most were the flowers and the amount the Catholic church wanted to have a funeral mass.
My mom had been a member of this church for 53 years.
She was in the choir as a soloist. She was the head of the Altar and Rosary Society. She cleaned the rectory. She donated weekly to the parish. Plus all four of us children had gone to the elementary school associated with the parish for grades 1-8. I told all this to the priest and parish secretary.
When I cut the $250 check and handed it to the priest I told him that this is the last F&CKING money you will ever see from this family. His face went blank and we walked out the door.