Family Angry Over 500-Pound Woman's Burial

ChannelCincinnati ^ | 10/02/03 | ChannelCincinnati

[LuLuLuLu]

NORWOOD, Ohio -- A local woman was laid to rest recently, but her family says she's not at peace.

Barbara Norris of Norwood died last week at age 63. Norris weighed more than 500 pounds, so her children were concerned from the beginning about making sure her casket was big enough, WLWT Eyewitness News 5's Sheree Paolello reported.

[shaggy eel]

,,, bingo! "What's eating Gilbert Grape?" Thanx for that! It would have come to me at 3,37am or maybe 4,52am sometime over the next week or so [LOL].

[Eternal_Bear]

Liposuction?

[Eternal_Bear]

Liposuction?

[E Rocc]

Some of our more suspicious employees

Ooops....superstitious not suspicious...though I guess they were that too, in a way.

-Eric

[Darnright]

"Batesville Casket Company, Batesville, Indiana......"

Ever seen one of their tractor trailers? On the back is written, "Drive Safely - Heaven Can Wait".

[baseballfanjm]

It's one of my personal favorite movies.

[shaggy eel]

,,, "What's eating Gilbert Grape?", "On golden pond", "Fried green tomatoes", "Forest Gump" and "Driving Miss Daisy" are some of my favourite films. Timeless.

[mewzilla]

This really is becoming a problem. There was a news report the other night that said many folks are too big for the diagnostic equipment, too (MRIs, CAT scanners, etc). They literally can't use them.

[eyes_only]

better to be judged by twelve than carried by eighteen.

[SamAdams76]

As one who recently moved to a normal size casket, I must say that something CAN be done about this. Believe me, I was headed for a similar size casket myself, I was 3/5 of the way there!

It's not easy but it can be done. Eating less and more exercise. Yes, it can be done, despite the protestations that will come from many who read this. But stay away from the fad diets like the low-fat ones. Just cut the junk out of your diet and eat plenty of natural foods like meat, fish, vegetables, berries, cheese, nuts and olive oil. And exercise, exercise, exercise.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a great movie. A cult classic. That movie deals with a woman who is similarly obese. Not an easy way to live. You can have sympathy for her but your sympathy will not help her. In fact, it will likely encourage her to make no positive changes in her life.

When I started climbing towards 300 pounds and losing all my energy, I had people starting to joke about me getting so fat. It definitely was a motivating factor in me reversing the trend and now I am giving many of them a hard time (in a good natured way) because I am now slimmer than most of them! And getting slimmer still.

We do not have both sides of the story here. It could be that the family did not want to pay for a special order casket and the funeral home was doing their best to accomodate them with the largest casket they had in stock. We just do not know and we should not jump to the conclusion that the funeral home was being inconsiderate or unprofessional. They could have been in a no-win situation with this. We're talking 500 pounds of woman here!

[Spyder]

Looks like a good story line for Six Feet Under.

[Don Carlos]

The thought was just creeping into my (admittedly slow) thought process when I caught IT's post and your (NF's) reply. OMG, nearly peed myself!

[eabinga]

Eventually she'll grow into that coffin.

Or simply "super-size" it: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=448034

[Porterville]

A good burial at sea would have done the trick.

[armymarinemom]

I'm sorry about your friend but when people get too large for surgery it is probably kinder not to attempt than to operate anyway and have them die due to failure of an incision to heal.

[Ichneumon]

Apparently over a certain weight you can't even be cremated because the incinerator won't handle the weight,

No problem -- just do it in two batches.

[WorkingClassFilth]

I'd say just blenderize her at some local pet food processor and pump the muck into drums. Either that or cash in on the $0.50/lb. rate for offal.

[whereasandsoforth]

That's "Whatever Happened To Baby Gilbert Grape"