Posted on 10/09/2001 3:08:21 PM PDT by jern
By CONNIE FARROW, Associated Press Writer
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) - A man's corpse was left on his front porch after a funeral home wasn't paid for his cremation.
The man's girlfriend, Nancy King, says she returned to the home after picking up a gallon of milk Friday to find a white bag containing the body of 74-year-old Robert L. Holder, who had died the previous week.
She said Hathaway Peterman Funeral Home returned the body to the house she and Holder shared in the central Missouri town of Cross Timbers.
``I'm just devastated,'' King said Monday. ``As soon as I pulled up to the house, I knew what they'd done. He was there, lying on my front porch. ... I could see his blue nightgown through the bag.''
Funeral director Gary Peterman of Hathaway Peterman declined Monday to discuss King's allegation.
``I think out of respect to Mr. Holder, let's just let this issue drop,'' he said.
Under state law, the funeral home is supposed to contact the county coroner if a body is not claimed by a relative.
The State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, which licenses funeral homes in Missouri, was looking into the matter. The funeral home could face punishment ranging from a disciplinary letter to revocation of its license if the accusations are true, executive director Pat Handly said.
King said Holder, who had served in the Army in World War II, had been released Sept. 26 from a veterans hospital and died of prostate cancer two days later.
``He knew he didn't have long to live, and he didn't want to die in the hospital,'' King said.
King said she told Holder's daughter in Oklahoma, his closest surviving relative, that he had died and had wished to be cremated.
But the question of the $1,200 payment was apparently complicated by King's strained relationship with Holder's relatives. Because she was not married to Holder, she could not grant permission for cremation.
Jim Miller of Reser Funeral Home in nearby Warsaw picked up the body after it was left on the porch. It will remain refrigerated until Miller can get permission to cremate Holder.
``I've been in this business 30 years, but I've never seen anything like this,'' Miller said. ``It's something that should have never happened.''
``I'm not worried about the money. We'll cover the expenses,'' Miller said. ``I just want to make this thing right.''
Oh no! Not a disciplinary letter! What are they going to do? Recovation of its license? Please. How about prison time? Civil liability. Such vile contempt by so-called professionals for fundamental human dignity (a veteran no less!) should not go unpunished.
Social un-Security only pays $251 when you die.
The real outrage here is that even our veterans can not afford to bury themselves. THAT is the real crime.
To sue a funeral home in this case only supports those out-of-control lawsuits that we've all heard about. The sue-happy masses have crippled US businesses and forced industry to flee our borders. Trial lawyers are the bad guys, not honest business which are merely trying to protect their profits. The funeral home was practicing capitalism. No cash- no ash.
It sounded like they didn't even drop the body off with the relatives that had the legal responsibility. I think the lady has a perfectly reasonable lawsuit. This is not the way to solve a problem like this. The funeral home coulld have taken the responsible parties to court for heaven's sake, not drop off the body on a porch.
You are correct that it is a business. They should not have accepted the body without a security deposit. Cremation should only cost $200. It was wrong to dump the body like that. Most counties have a Potter's Field fund to bury the indigent.
When my F-I-L passed away and the Wife found out what the funeral expenses were, she suggested that I use my tools in the shop to build my own coffin. Instead of a press-board box for $1100 to be cremated in, I have a hand-made, custom fitted pine box. I store spare antennas, etc, in it until I need it.
/john
This is REALLY beyond the pale.
I don't think so--the state should pull the license of this insensitive person. (I really wanted to call him a blankety blank %$#@#$%, but I did not to get banned!)
The Tarheel
With all the problems we have..... this?
Why doesn't she just throw the damned thing in the dumpster
and get on with life...
Sorry, but the funeral home should be sued for it's out of bounds behaviour.
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