KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2010 / NEWS
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FUNERALFLAK
Ryan Waggoner/KANSAN
Carlson, the former executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, a nonprofit that educates families of the deceased about their rights, is a leader in the recent movement toward caring for the dead at home. In all but a handful of states, it's legal to care for the dead, hold a home funeral and even perform a burial within the privacy of your own home. In Kansas, home burial is legal, but it is subject to county regulations.
Carlson argues that the funeral industry has long taken advantage of customers, who are vulnerable because of their grief. Morticians can essentially charge whatever they like for their services, creating "a system that invites abuse," she said.
"People don't want to talk about it, and they don't want to think about it," said Tracey LaPierre, assistant professor of sociology and assistant research scientist in the Gerontology Center.
But consumers are partially to blame. Americans shy away from planning for death, which cripples their decision-making when death and grief arrive.
The loss of her father and two grandfathers back in Canada while she was a graduate student here in the U.S. sparked LaPierre's initial interest in the funeral industry. Her interest quickly turned into a passionate research topic. She's now one of the few KU professors knowledgeable in thanatology, the study of the social and psychological implications of death. She teaches the course "Sociology of Death and Dying."
Her father's death in a car accident was the first death of a close family member she experienced. The tragedy left her with a list of decisions she was unprepared to make.
Would he have preferred crema tion or burial?
Did he want a religious ceremony?
What songs would he want played at the funeral?
In her class, LaPierre preaches the importance of making one's wishes known through wills, advanced directives and dialogue with family, which can help avoid these lingering questions. Open discussion and understanding of death is perhaps one of the best ways to prepare for and cope with loss. Yet she, like many people, still hasn't made her own final wishes known on paper.
Ryan Waggoner/KANSM Todd Miller, who has worked at Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home for three years, is currently working on getting his funeral directors license. Before becoming a director himself, Miller must pass the state boards and complete an apprenticeship.
"I'm just as susceptible as everyone else," she said. "You always think there will be more time tomorrow."
The whole experience of her father's death is a blur, but she
"lonestly, price wasn't an issue," she said. "We didn't even care."
remembers one thing.
e vehicle
In retrospect, it probably wasn't a good idea to dish out thousands of dollars for a fancy casket. But at the moment, the pressure to act quickly and demonstrate her love for her father trumped reason and practicality, she said.
The experience of planning a furnaler, coupled with her in-depth study, has left her a much more enlightened consumer. She suggests planning ahead and never being afraid to shop around or to leave a furnaler home that doesn't treat you well.
The Funeral Consumers Alliance maintains that an abundance of funeral homes and undertakers in many states has caused an oversaturated market and higher costs for consumers. In Kansas, the Alliance estimates a need for only 99 funeral homes, but 326 funeral homes are currently in operation.
"They're fighting over dead bodies in many areas." Carlson said.
Lawrence is home to three funeral homes, two of which are equipped to perform cremations. About 500 people die each year in Douglas County.
Even critics aren't predicting the death of the death care industry. Neither Carlson nor Sehee foresee the extinction of the traditional American funeral anytime soon.
"Home schooling never put the schools out of business. Home births never put the OB/GYNs out of business. Home funerals aren't going to put the funeral directors out of business," Carlson said. "But they may have to start selling homeowners insurance on the side or refinish antiques or something."
THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT
The job of undertaker is a lot like a doctor - always on call.
But in this business, no one is ever saved.
At Rurnsey-Yost, Todd Miller and other students trade off nights sleeping in a small room on the third floor. When a nursing home, hospital or family calls, they throw on a suit and tie and quickly retrieve the dead.
Miller moves the corpse onto a stretcher and covers it in a maroon velvet body bag. Overnight, the body will stay in the coolness of the basement until Foley or another embalmer arrives in the morning.
Only a few feet away are the two options — the crematory and the entrance to the embalming room. Not a long journey.
Local funeral home see this 24/7
service as part of their duty in serv
ing bereaved families
"We're always here," funeral director Patty Dardis said. "It doesn't matter if we were just sitting down to Christmas dinner."
Dardis says funeral directors must find a way to separate grief and sorrow at work from the happiness of home life, just as doctors can't bring every patient's illness home with them.
To the embalmers, this level of separation is also vital to their success.
--for easy viewing. The elbows rest on blocks hidden under the casket lining to keep the arms from falling. The hands are set on the abdomen, one over the other. The goal is to make the body look as though it's enjoying peaceful sleep.
After letting the body firm up, Foley and Miller now set out to beautify the corpse — the last step.
Once the cadaver is completely sealed, the two dress the body, usually in clothes picked out by the family. Underwear, socks and a bra are all draped on the deceased. No detail is left out. The shirt, jacket or dress is cut down the back to make manipulating the stiff arms easier. The same goes for the pants. The shoes can also be if there's any trouble getting them on.
The face and hands are then stained a more lifelike color. They fix the hair just as the person wore it in life and apply makeup. A lift lowers the body from the table into the casket, the head cradled by a plush pillow, tilted slightly to the right
Miller says he treats every body as respectfully as if it were his own grandmother, but it's not as if he is actually caring for a living person.
In the embalming room, Mr. Smith is no longer Mr. Smith. He's an object to be preserved and dressed up.
Though they don't know the person in the coffin, Miller and Foley take great care in this process. This is their gift to the family, the most important result of their labor.
Regardless of what critics say about embalming, cremation and the financial and environmental costs of the funeral industry, this is what a majority of grieving families choose
Embalmed, buried, cremated or donated to medical science, the physical body remains the centerpiece of American death rituals. It allows the families to grieve the loss of a loved one and perhaps to catch a glimpse of what inevitably waits in the future.
The truth is, this entire process isn't for the dead.
In the end, the dead won't see the embalming room in the basement. They won't feel the blood being sucked out of their bodies or smell the formaldehyde as it's pushed through their veins. They won't feel the pain of sharp tools jabbing into their abdomen or the searing heat of the cremation oven.
Ryan Waggoner/KANSAN
By the time the mourners gather, the dead are no longer present, at least not in this world. But they have left behind remains for others to mourn and remember as the body is shown, the casket is closed and the grave covered with dirt.
They won't enjoy the comfort of the lush, silky mattress that lines their polished coffin. They won't see their precisely styled hair or marvel at the granite headstone over their grave.
No, this process is all for the living.
See a timeline of the history of caskets at kansan.com.
Edited by Lauren Keith
used in the funeral ceremony.
THE HISTORY OF EMBALMING
The history of embalming goes back at least 6,000 years to ancient Egyptians, who believed that the deceased lived on in the afterlife.
Bodies were first preserved by dehydration in the Egyptian desert's dry heat. Complete dehydration prevents bacteria and fungi from eating away at the body. The practice evolved into an elaborate 52-day process in which the organs were removed and the body was dried, washed, and stuffed with linen before being coated in wax, oil, salt, spices and hot resin. All orifices were sealed and the body was wrapped in linen shrouds, which were often decorated. Sometimes the bandage
were painted to look like the deceased's face, giving the mummy a doll-like façade.
Egyptians were accompanied in death by valuables and everyday objects such as pottery, combs and jewelry, which were expected to be of practical use in the afterlife.
Today, many bodies are buried with wedding rings, Bibles and other worldly trinkets.
Fallen Union soldiers were embalmed, allowing the bodies to be shipped home with minimal decomposition. Perhaps it was Abe Lincoln's embalmed corpse traveling cross-country in 1865 from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Ill., that signaled the beginning of a nationwide affection for preserving the dead.
Embalming was practiced intermittently in Europe during times of war to preserve the bodies of fallen soldiers. But it wasn't until the Civil War that widespread use of the practice began.
Still, until the early 1900s, most Americans cared for, memorialized and buried their own dead at their homes or churches.
At about that time, furniture merchants began making coffins to capitalize on the emerging funeral business. The trade of mortician existed as part-time, supplementary work in the United States until the widespread popularity of embalming necessitated full-time tradesmen to complete the work.
That was the beginning of the American funeral home.
DONATING THE DEAD
About 225 bodies are donated each year through the Willed Body Program at the KU Medical Center, the only body donation program in Kansas. Funeral homes charge to transport donated bodies to the Med Center in Kansas City, Kan. In Lawrence it can cost as much as $1,275.
But families wishing to bequeath a body to science don't have to involve funeral homes at all. In Kansas, it's perfectly legal for family members to transport the dead on their own. Amy Deneke, one of two anatomical morticians for the program, said people have driven dead family members to Kansas City from as far away as the Kansas-Colorado border to avoid funeral costs.
Once a body arrives, it's shaved and tagged before being embalmed — a much more labor-intensive process than at funeral homes. Staff members place the body into a steel tank filled with water and run embalming fluid lines into the body for two to three days. Unlike funeral home embalming, no blood is removed from the cadaver. This one-way flow of fluids causes the body to gain additional weight sometimes as much as 30 pounds. A saw cuts through the skull so the brain can be removed for closer study.
The cadaver is then placed in a large plastic bag and set on a metal rack for several months to cure and dry.
After curing, the bodies are sent to colleges and universities to be used in biology, physiology and anatomy classes and labs.
After the schools have finished their work, the bodies are sent back to the Med Center, which has its own crematory. Each body is tracked throughout the entire process, so cremated remains can be returned to surviving family members.
Headstone and urn photos by Ryan Waggoner/KANSAN, Egyptian symbol from dafont.com
dollars of difference even between funeral homes in Lawrence. Usually, the least expensive and most simple casket models, such as those made of fiberboard or cardboard, are not on display in funeral home showrooms. Several models of wood caskets are designed specifically for cremation. Most funeral homes also offer a rental casket for a few hundred dollars that can be used before cremation or direct burial of the body. Retailers such as Walmart and Costco have begun to sell discounted caskets online. By law, funeral homes cannot turn away caskets bought or made elsewhere.
Cost of a burial plot in Lawrence's Oak Hill Cemetery
$ 700
$650-$1,000
$650-$1,000
Cost of opening and closing a grave
This fee pays for the labor of cemetery workers, and it's more expensive on weekends and holidays.
$630-$24,086
Outer burial container
These concrete or metal vaults further protect the casket and the body. Some cemeteries require them to
Transportation of a body to another funeral home
prevent graves from sinking in
$1,948-$2,998
This does not include costs of airfare, shipping or transportation to and from an airport or other long distance.
$1,454-$2,190
Receiving a body from
another funeral home
This does not include costs of any airfare, shipping or transportation to and from an airport or other long distance.
Body donation when using a funeral home
$855-$1,275
$7.500
This price includes removal and transport of the body to the KU Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.
Average price of a U.S. funeral, according to www.funeral-tips.com
www.funeral-tips.com
This figure does not include funeral plot, outer burial container or grave marker costs.
*These prices do not include charges for stationery, transportation and additional mileage in funeral home vehicles, temporary grave markers or permanent headstones. Obituaries, cemetery tents and chairs, death certificates, compensation for clergy and musicians and overtime charges for employees of the funeral home, cemetery or vault company might not be included. Many funeral homes are willing to work with customers who are unable to pay in full. Payment plans or reduced rates for services can sometimes be negotiated.