Everything-old-is-new-again department -- a fascinating look at the evolution of the funeral industry, including the news that, because of escalating costs, some people are going back to the way our ancestors did things:
Moreland, a veteran of the industry for more than 20 years, is a funeral director without a funeral home. He operates his funeral business from a Portage office, provides funeral and memorial services in homes, lodges, civic, veterans or church halls, and does embalming at a funeral home in DeMotte where he has his funeral home license number.
"We're going full circle to the way my grandfather did it 60 years ago," Moreland said.
Much has been written about how we are poorer today because we've divorced ourselves from nature's reality. We buy our food prepackaged, lacking the understanding of where it comes from. We step into homes we didn't have to build, drive cars and watch televisions and work on computers that other people fix. How many of us these days could make a pair of shoes? I've agreed with much of this.
But I have to say the move toward funeral homes was one I find hard to deplore. The idea of having the dear departed on view in the home is a little unsettling. And I've seen plenty of old photos of people actually posing with the bodies, which always struck me as major-league creepy.
Oh, and thanks to the writer of the article, who thoughtfully included this tidbit:
With Baby Boomers reaching 60 and the country's aging population, "there's going to be a tremendous increase in the death rate in the next 30 years," Rostad said.
