Nine days ago, an 88 year old woman died in a local nursing home. Someone called a funeral home without consulting the family and this woman was transported to one of the most expensive funeral homes in the Twin Cities. Her daughter called one of our staff members saying that she couldn't pay what the funeral home was asking and that they had already embalmed her mother!

Nine days later, we have been asked to pick up the funeral and burial.

 

Sadly, this is not an infrequent occurence. Like most of us, our clients can't imagine a body being cared for without their understanding of what they are being asked and the information being given to them. Many of these families don't know where they can find $10 and now a funeral home is talking about thousnds of dollars, multiple choices that are possible and the family is overwhelmed.

 

A number of years ago a family called me because the fuenral home had just told them that they would not accept county burial funds as the total payment for their services and merchandise. These were Mexican immigrants who spoke some English and struggled to understand much of what was said to them. In this case, the most important thing that I could offer was holding and hugging the distraught daughters while they sought additional funds. They did not understand that they could transfer the care for their mother to our funeral service.

 

Know that we don't go from family to family to offer lower cost funerals. Our services are known and many families come to us as soon as they apply for county assistance, knowing that this will not be an issue.

 

The words of THE PROPHET, Kahilil Gibran describe us and our work: