8/10/2023 0 Comments Sacred moment funeral homeToday, the funeral industry has become managed in part by aggregate companies. “There’s no sales pressure, there’s no up-selling, and we make sure people get what they need.” Federal Trade Commission regulations and consumer protections now prevent families from being swindled. In 1963, investigative journalist Jessica Mitford published “The American Way of Death,” an exposé of the country’s funeral-industrial complex, showing how it exploited the emotions of the living so it could up-sell unnecessary services and products, such as premium caskets and premier vaults. In all likelihood, her last bodily contact before disposition would be with a complete stranger. You would briefly visit her one last time at a mortuary or a chapel before she was either buried or burned. They would wash her, embalm her, and dress her to your family’s liking. If a loved one were to die today, you would probably call and pay a funeral home to pick her up from wherever she took her last breath. So why has probably every American funeral you’ve been to had an embalmed body in attendance?Īs 20th century consumerism took hold and people were more likely to die in a hospital than at home, death receded from public consciousness. However, the overwhelming majority of contemporary consumers don’t realize that, in most cases, it’s not legally required to bury a body, although special circumstances vary from state to state. Today, its pragmatic purpose is to temporarily stop decomposition for viewing and final goodbyes. Until the advent of modern hospitals and health care at the turn of the last century, it was the norm for the old and sick to die at home surrounded by loved ones.ĭuring the Civil War, embalming as a form of preservation found a foothold when Union soldier casualties needed to be transported from the sweltering South to mourning families in the North. The subculture of “deathxperts” want not only to empower their clients, but also potentially phase out their jobs altogether-a sort of death of the funeral director as we know it.įor the majority of human history, families handled arrangements for the deceased, from the time immediately after death, to burial or cremation. From consumer cooperatives that combat price gouging, to putting the power of choice back in the hands of the family, the city of Seattle has become a hub for alternative death care in the last two years, according to Barrett. To Barrett and many other professionals who are offering alternatives to the more status-oriented, profit-driven funeral industry, it’s time to rethink how we handle death. “It’s really the way we used to do it,” says Barrett. The family then washes the body, in part to prepare it for viewing and in part as a ritual. In a home funeral service, the body is either brought back to the family from the place of death or stays at home if the person died there. “People looked at me like I had two heads when I said, ‘Keep the body at home after the person dies,’” says Barrett, a Seattle-based funeral director and certified “death midwife.” “For families who want it, they should have the right to do it.”īarrett has been practicing home funerals in the area since 2006 through her business, A Sacred Moment. People might cry, they might laugh, and all attention would be on the person of the hour-only that person would never see, hear, or enjoy the festivities, because they would be dead.Īs 20th century consumerism took hold and people were more likely to die in a hospital than at home, death receded from public consciousness. Over the smell of coffee and freshly baked tarts, she was going to advise a client on how best to host a special event at her home, helping coordinate everything from the logistics of the ceremony, to how to dress the guest of honor. Char Barrett walked into a quaint cafe in Seattle with business in mind.
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