|
Key Memories: Reports from the Field
During monthly conference calls, Keystone funeral home managers share their experiences with the Key Memories program. Some of their stories:
• Joel Long
Showalter-Blackwell-Long Funeral Home, Connersville, Indiana
We had a NASCAR fan who had several of these 3-by-5-foot flags; I put one on either side of the front door. We're on Central Avenue, which is a main street in town, so everybody in town knew that something was happening with NASCAR at our funeral home. I put one on either end of the casket as well, and we used three picture boards and had the mantle and all of our tables full of his memorabilia. That was very well received.
Also, I had a couple of musicians; one was involved in a national group. That case was interesting because it was a minimum service from the standpoint of merchandise, but we had his trumpet and his bugle horns and everything laid out. I had one of them lying on top of the casket and we played his music. We had a lot of positive feedback from that. The other gentleman was a bass player and we played big band music the whole time; his wife was in yesterday and was still thanking me for that.
• Brian Flecker
Turner-Robertshaw Funeral Home, Front Royal, Virginia
One thing that I have noticed in more recent months is thank-yous from the families. In the past, every five or six families, you'd end up with a thank-you note. But I have found that has probably climbed to two to three times that amount.
We had a fireman's funeral where the family really wasn't going to do any personalization until I got to talking with them. He had helped start up one of the little volunteer fire departments in the county. So I said, "How about if we have a fire truck or something of that nature?" They said, "Well, can we do that?" We had a pump truck take the casket from the funeral home the day of the funeral down to the fire department, had all the fire department volunteers that were able to march behind the fire truck up to the church. We had ladder trucks crossing the highway with an American flag hanging from the two ladders. It was just fantastic and of course, it makes the newspapers, which is free advertising.
• Bill Bennett
Debo Funeral Home Fulton, Missouri
We've done the best with our cremation memorial services. We've used picture boards, table displays, and they've brought in little porcelain birds, angels and candles, little thimbles -- all the different little things that have been very precious to the family members.
We've had a number of funerals for grandmothers lately, and I've encouraged sons, daughters and grandchildren to write letters. In one case, letters and roses were all over her chest and all over her arms and legs -- it got a little carried away -- but it made a real impact on the family to know that grandmother had that when we closed the casket.
• Eddie Overholt
Claiborne Funeral Home, New Tazewell, Tennessee
When my grandmother died, we used a lot of the quilts and crafts she had made, and canned goods, in the visitation. About one week after that, this lady died and the family came in carrying virtually all of the same things they'd seen at my grandmother's funeral. That's the reason they came to us -- they had seen that, they liked it. I didn't get a chance to present anything to them at all -- they came in carrying everything.
• Brooks Fetters
Myers Funeral Home, Huntington, Indiana
For a woman who had been an organist and a pianist at the local Nazarene church for 50 years, we played tapes of her music throughout the entire visitation and service, with a display of her music and piano memorabilia.
• Christine Taylor
The Paul Mortuary, Pacific Grove, California
We had a lady who collected angels and elephants, and I said, "How wonderful it would be if you could bring these things in," and before I knew it, there were four large boxes full -- I think we had a total of five memory tables in the church. One of them was a very long credenza, just to accommodate everything they had brought in. We had an angel engraved on the casket, so the theme followed through the entire funeral service, and they were so pleased.
We had a service for a one lady who, like most people on the peninsula here, was an avid golfer. They brought in her pink golf bag with her shoes and her gloves on her golf hand-cart and put out a few balls and tees, and it really painted the picture of what was the most enjoyable part of her last years.
I met with a funeral director from Kentucky whose brother-in-law had died suddenly and she stepped in to take care of things. I think she didn't want to share with me that they were thinking about having a service on the beach. And though I talked about Key Memories and what we could do and what they could do, she wasn't super responsive. He had retired from a long career as a farmer in Idaho, and I asked her what he had farmed. Well, of course, he had farmed potatoes, and I said, just as she was walking out the door, "Wouldn't it be really great at your picnic on the beach to have a big bag of potatoes just sitting there?" And she said, "You know what, that is a fantastic idea." I called her after the service just to see how everything went, because she wasn't looking for our help at all. And she thanked me again and again, because so many people had enjoyed just seeing that one bag of potatoes -- it made all the difference in the world for them.
Back to the main story
Copyright ICFA 2000
|
