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.

[Salman]

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

Nonsense. Just be cremated in two or more pieces.

[A Mississippian]

Funny, there is a Batesville Casket Company in Batesville Mississippi too. I always thought it got its name from its location. On reading the main website, I see that it is one of several manufacturing plants for the home office in Indiana.

If you are driving I55 south from Memphis, you will see their nice facility about 30 miles below Memphis.

[sylar]

if there were no caskets available with enough volume for this woman, it would not be very difficult or expensive to build one. nor is it difficult to find someone capable of building one.

this leaves me with two possible conclusions:
1) the members of the family are truely stupid. they did not get a large enough box to begin with. further more, they did not stop the service after seeing that the volume of the casket was simply not large enough.

2) the family is looking to milk some money out of the undertakers. something along the lines of a cut rate for the unsatisfactory service.

are there any other possible reasons for this families behavior?

[Simcha7]

Sorry to hear about your Dad.

I know about Laughing at Funerals...

Ture Story...

I went to a Funeral of a dear friend, at the Church we both attended quite a few years ago.

There were a few Carnations taped to the top of the microphone stand, every time the Pastor tried to speak a few words about the deceased a Carnation would droop over, it happened Three times and everyone was Hysterical with Laughter, including the deceased's Widow, adult son and daughter.

Oh, it was too Funny.

We all agreed that the deceased was Laughing just as hard as we were!

[radiohead]

No problem -- just do it in two batches.

LOL! You must be watching the same movies I do!

[radiohead]

Hey, I didn't write the article. Just reporting what I read.

[radiohead]

LOL!!! After a day of reading Rush posts, I can use the laughs.

[Rebelbase]

ROTF!!!!!!!

[The KG9 Kid]

Cremation was the solution in this case.

RIP.

[Marauder]

More than you wanted to know?

Not really that so much, but the visuals are killing me. :)

[wideminded]

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

Ever seen one of their tractor trailers?

It is possible to get an idea of the age profile of the state in which you live by how often you see these trucks.

[pubmom]

'What's Eating Gilbert Grape' was the name of the film, I believe.

[habs4ever]

You are bad, bad, bad!!

[Darnright]

>It is possible to get an idea of the age profile of the state in which you live by how often you see these trucks.

Really? I'm in Virginia. I see the trucks on occasion in town, and I've seen them in my travels to other states. I don't see them on a monthly basis or anything like that.

[Held_to_Ransom]

A giant coffin would have been the proper thing, but it would probably cost more than twice the normal one. Certainly, the practical thing to do would be to bury her in two regular caskets.

[Ditter]

I'll bet a custom casket could have been made for this woman but the family would have screamed at the cost. If they were not happy with the unclosed casket why didn't they stop the burial until some kind of container could be found. They waited until it was done to complain.

[Zevonismymuse]

Good film - wish I could recall the title.

"What's Eating Gilbert Grape" is the movie. One of my all time favorites.

[Dimensio]

Something must be done about all of this.

But what, exactly, and who will do it?

[cardinal4]

Mercedes Norris said the funeral director's explanation is not enough to comfort her family.

But the six figure, out of court settlement certainly will..

[wimpycat]

At my granddaddy's viewing, my cousin's little boy who was about 9 at the time, whom granddaddy adored, went over to his body and, though I didn't actually see what he did, I heard him say quite loudly, "His head's as hard as a rock!"

I thought I was gonna pee my pants. If granddaddy had been alive, he would have thought it was funny.