Free Republic

A Toronto-area casket manufacturer has seen a dramatic rise in orders for smaller-sized coffins since the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. Children are dying. Ultimately, everything in life comes down to death. We are raised to believe that there’s a time for living and a time for dying. The time for dying comes with illness, accidents, and old age. Except it doesn’t anymore. In an exclusive interview with RAIR Foundation USA, Mick Haddock, a manufacturer of caskets in northern Toronto, says things have changed markedly in the industry in the last nine months. “Small people are passing away,” he says. “It’s...

... The Delta Honor Guard is a group of employees and baggage handlers at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. What they do for Fallen Soldiers is extremely touching ...

The St. Joseph Abbey monks will be able to legally sell handcrafted caskets from their St. Tammany Parish monastery near Covington after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request by Louisiana's board of funeral directors to overturn an appeals court ruling that allowed the monks to sell caskets without a funeral director's license."We're just happy to know that our economic liberty has been protected, and we're also happy to know that maybe we've helped secure the rights of others," Abbot Justin Brown said of the Supreme Court's decision. "It's a good feeling. It does...hopefully put this issue to rest."The Louisiana...

Can the government restrict the monks of St. Joseph’s Abbey in Saint Benedict, La., from building boxes? Yes, says the state, if those boxes are for the deceased. In 2007, the monks at St. Joseph’s Abbey started St. Joseph Woodworks for the purpose of building simple wooden caskets as a means of supporting themselves. Monks in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota have been in the casket-making business for years. Before they were able to sell even a single casket, the Louisiana State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors told them that their sale of caskets violated state law, which says...

When it comes to the return of fallen heroes, Americans have mixed feelings about the rights of families, patriotism and the demands of the press for "transparency."

News organizations will be allowed to photograph the homecomings of America's war dead under a new Pentagon policy, defense and congressional officials said Thursday. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decided to allow photos of flag-draped caskets at Dover Air Force Base, Del., if the families of the fallen troops agree, the officials told The Associated Press. Gates planned to announce his decision later Thursday, they said. The current ban was put in place in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush. Some critics have contended the government was trying to hide the human cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Veterans groups are adamant -- the flag-draped caskets of fallen troops should not be turned into yet another photo op. Both the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Tuesday condemned a proposal to lift restrictions that now prevent the press from photographing caskets as they arrive home from wars overseas.

Die-hard baseball fans will soon have a way to be close to their favorite teams in the afterlife. Eternal Image Inc., which makes customized caskets and urns, said on Friday it has signed a multiyear licensing agreement with Major League Baseball that allows the company to reproduce the names and logos of all 30 league teams on a new line of caskets and urns...

Bill Would Require ID on La. Caskets Tuesday April 11, 2006 1:01 AM By MELINDA DESLATTE Associated Press Writer BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The floodwaters of hurricanes Katrina and Rita disturbed hundreds of coffins, many forced from their grave sites without identifying markers to provide information about who was buried inside them. Now, lawmakers are considering ways to make those caskets more identifiable if the state has another flood. ``We have to make sure that family members have some way to identify who is buried here,'' said Rep. Mickey Frith, D-Kaplan. The House Commerce Committee on Monday approved a...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - When the funeral director saw the fat man in the small town, they engaged in some friendly banter about death. "You'd tell him, 'You're going to have to go on a diet. You've got to lose some of that weight," said John C. Rudder, owner of Rudder Funeral Home in Scottsboro. "And he'd say 'Yeah, I know, you ain't got a box big enough to fit me.'""And we didn't," Rudder said. The solution when the man died: Order an oversized casket. With an increasing number of Americans considered obese - including many in Alabama - funeral...

Dan Rather decided on Wednesday night to turn, the return of the bodies of Louisiana National Guardsmen killed in Iraq, into an opportunity to take a shot at the Bush administration for not allowing pictures of caskets arriving at military bases, a policy, he did not note, which matches that of the Clinton administration. Rather led the CBS Evening News with how "by Pentagon design, the American people have rarely been allowed to see what was seen today -- a homecoming. Flag-draped caskets of six American soldiers were flown to Louisiana where the National Guard chose to ignore Pentagon policy...

In the 15-plus years we've been residents in Summit County, we've never seen such a blatant exhibition of disrespect and insensitivity as the "cartoon" you chose to publish on Dec. 2. The musical title of "I'll Be Home for Christmas" coupled with an illustration of flag-draped coffins was appalling given the recent loss to this community of Lance Cpl. Justin Ellsworth. Shame on you.

Costco Eyeing Casket Business * Started Test Marketing Caskets In Chicago Aug 17, 2004 7:35 am US/Central Whether you're in the market for a good night's sleep or the eternal kind, one store at least has you covered. Costco Wholesale Corp., better known for bulk chicken and cases of soda, started test marketing caskets alongside mattresses at a North Side Chicago store Monday. They're also being sold at a suburban Oak Brook store. "This is certainly something that can be an easy value," said Gina Bianche, a buyer in Costco's corporate office in Issaquah, Wash. "I don't want to say...

Campaign ad shows 9/11 caskets