Buy a box and make it better
“At Batesville Casket Company, our mission is to assist funeral homes in creating meaningful funerals that help families honor the lives of those they love. We do this by providing superior funeral products and services that help funeral professionals serve grieving families during a most difficult time.” In particular, they’ll sell a funeral director a box on which he or she can slap a wee markup, which “reflects the personality and taste of your loved one,” and which “can be your final tribute to their life.” A Batesville box even comes with a little drawer in which you can “secure private mementos and farewell messages”.
Nice one, Batesville. If only it were that simple.
As simple, for example, as sneering. It’s all too lazy to come over all Jessica Mitfordish about these bling monsters and other funereal stuff. But it doesn’t pay to be baleful. Sure, if people think they can banish grief by lobbing merchandise at it, they’re going to miss the point. But, given the way we are, it’s always going help.
Labels: coffins
posted by Charles Cowling at
09:37
7 Comments:
Hey, I've met enough people who think that throwing money at problems in life will make them better - of course they're going to try to do the same with the problems and upsets caused by death....
Sorry - bitter and twisted - 20 years in finance before I became a celebrant. Makes a girl cynical.
Um, I may be wrong, it has happened before, but as I understand it these coffins are not accepted over here by any crematoriums or cemeteries. The only use they seem to have is for repatriation.
Rupert,
I also wondered whether they would be acceptable for burial in our cramped cemeteries (there's no doubt they're not suitable for cremation) so I asked Tim Morris, the Chief Exec of the ICCM.
He said:
"There is no blanket UK ban on these large caskets.
If a size/space problem exisits the burial authority could either allocate a grave on the end of a line or provide 2 spaces however the latter might incur additional cost."
Thank you Tony. A truly monstrous thing indeed. It's not often you long for legislation..
I must tell you that families love the little drawers in the caskets. Clearly, it's become a selling point because families often mention what they plan to put in the hidden drawer. Who knew that a simple little drawer could mean so much? Even when I mention that photos, notes, etc. can be laid next to the body in the casket instead, families will opt for using the drawer. It's really fascinating. Exactly what need does the little drawer fulfill? A little secret between the family and the deceased? Intriguing bit of genius marketing if you ask me.
Love the little hidden drawers, Funeral Lady. Shame they had to dump a yawning pink hippopotamus of a coffin on top of it.
And I love the "might incur additional cost", Tony. Did you detect a hint of irony in Mr Morris's voice?
Excuse my cheek, but an explanation of the popularity of the "simple drawer" couldn't be simpler - and precisely because of its simplicity, we over-complicated moderns think it took some marketing genius to figure it out.
Since the stone age, humans have always put possessions, food, gifts, weapons etc into graves with the deceased, for one reason or another. And in the deepest levels of our psyche we haven't changed an iota since the stone age. We have more knowledge, technical power etc but our deepest spiritual/psychological needs haven't changed.
Anyone who wants to really do the world some good in the field of death care need only look for the universally recurring motives in the history of death rituals and adapt them to modern technology and practical limitations.
The essence of the adapted practice must remain - as in the "little drawer".
But there's the trick - changing the form, keeping the essential benefit.
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