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In Windsor, Colorado, one funeral director recounts the damage from last May’s EF3 tornado that destroyed several of his hearses and other things associated with his business.

Mark Long was in the Marks Funeral Home and Cremation Service on the day of the devastating tornado. “I had no clue it was a tornado,” he told a reporter. “I was listening to XM Radio and my only clue was the hail.”

But Todd Vess, a local firefighter and Long’s partner, warned Mark of the tornado which was reported in his area. “Once I heard that the tornado had hit the area where the funeral home was, I called Mark to tell him to take cover. I remember him saying before his phone cut out that ‘it’s here.’”

The EF3 tornado was so powerful that it knocked the 19-ton cremation oven four inches off of its proper place. It also destroyed two hearses that mark had parked in his parking lot. Neither one of them were Cadillac hearses, but that does not make the destruction any easier to endure.

Today, Long and his partner have rebuilt the funeral home. “We’re the only funeral home in Windsory. We wanted to stay here,” Vess explained. He feels lucky that business was slow at the time of the tornado so no bodies were destroyed as a result of the storm.

When preplanning your funeral,Cadillac hearses are just one option you will need to consider. But if you do decide to preplan your funeral, it is important to make financially sound decisions to avoid spending too much or getting scammed. Here are some things to keep in mind when it is time to make the preplanning decision.

• Get an itemized price list. When you are planning a funeral, the director is required to give you an itemized price list at the start of the discussion. This will give you an idea of how much you will be spending right away. You can also choose items from the list separately rather than an entire package if you choose.
• Ask if there are caskets not listed on the price list. Some funeral homes may not list their lower-priced caskets. If the director says they are out of stock, ask how long it would take to get one because many of them can be delivered in a matter of hours.
• Go online and make phone calls. Funeral directors are required to tell you prices over the phone for professional services. Many of them may even list their prices online to make your “shopping” experience even easier.

These are just a few things to consider when shopping for a funeral home. If you stay calm during the process and ask a lot of questions, you are more likely to be comfortable with your purchase.

When shopping around for the funeral home at which you want to have your service when you pass away, the price of funeral cars is one of the costs you will need to consider . But many people get a little squeamish when it comes to shopping around at funeral homes.

Your funeral, however, is probably the third largest purchase you will ever make behind your home and your car. That is why it is so important to shop for a funeral home you like in much the same way you shop for your home or next car so you can get exactly what you want without getting ripped off.

"You’re more likely to make a hasty financial decision in an emotionally charged situation," said Connie Perna-Pellegrino, the owner of Perna-Pellegrino Funeral Home near Buffalo, New York. "People need to be educated consumers so they’re making sound decisions rather than reacting to a crisis situation." Although we would like to think that funeral directors have our best interest at heart, they are still in business to make a profit and one way they make a profit is to sell their products.

One of the options you have if you really want to "go out in style" is a luxurious Cadillac hearse . On Wednesday, we’ll discuss this idea further and tell you how you can be thriftier with your money while pre-planning your funeral.

I’ve heard of rivals in sports. I have even heard of rivalries in business. But this is the first time I have heard of rival undertakers!

This story from the United Kingdom may be one of the most bizarre stories I have ever read. Let me just quote the first line of the story to give you an idea of how weird it is: “Mourners at a funeral were stunned when the keys to the hearse were stolen by a rival undertaker as the coffin was about to head to the cemetery.”

The incident occurred at Patricia Thorburn’s funeral at the Salvation Army citadel in Middlesborough. Undertaker David Wood, who believed undertaker Joel Kerr had been poaching customers from him, waited outside the funeral home until the time was right. When nobody was looking, he jumped in and stole the keys out of the waiting Rolls-Royce hearse. As a result of his actions, the family had to wait for another hour before they could follow the hearse to the cemetery as workers at the funeral had to hotwire the hearse. The family was offered a similar Cadillac hearse from a different company, but they insisted on using the Rolls-Royce hearse for the procession.

“The level of disrespect is unbelievable, dreadful,” said Irene Jessop, a funeral director that works with Kerr. Wood is due to stand trial after pleading guilty to theft.

If you live in the Seattle area, you may have seen some new advertisements on the back of metro buses and other places for the Evergreen Washelli Funeral Homes. The ads seem more like a public service than an actual advertisement, but they are still rather effective.

Evergreen Washelli Funeral Homes are using the space to encourage people to put down their cell phones when they are driving. The advertisement reads, “OMG dnt txt and drive…We’d hate to be your new service provider.” There is also a picture of a hand texting on a cell phone while behind the wheel of a car.

Sarah Geiger, the manager of the funeral home, said the company walked a “fine line” with this campaign. “Before, the advertising we had done was along the lines of honor, love and cherish and remember,” she explained. However, they made the change because they just did not think those types of ads were “catchy.”

The first bus ad the creative team came up with showed a Cadillac hearse with a tagline that read, “Don’t drink and drive. We’ hate to be your designated driver.”

The team still has several more ideas for ads that are coming up in this particular campaign. Do you have any clever ideas that would make great advertisements?

We all know the most common use of hearses, but did you know a classic hearse can serve so many more purposes than carrying deceased people around? One columnist reflects on other fun uses for Cadillac hearses after seeing one while stuck in traffic one day.

One fun thing you can do with a hearse is to go camping. With all of the extra space in the back, there is plenty of room for all your gear. You may even want to unload the back and use it at night for sleeping if you are not creeped out by that. You might even be able to save money at the local campground if you tell them you are there to do a “pickup.”

Hearses would be ideal for fishing trips, too, the columnist thought. With the extra long space in the back, you can put your best fishing poles back there and avoid broken rods and tangled fishing lines. He also surmised that it would be great for areas with heavy traffic because he could put a light on the top and people would pull over to allow him to pass.

These are just a few uses for hearses besides the traditional purpose. Can you think of other things you could use a hearse for? Let us know your thoughts below.

That might sound like a weird and morbid title, but we have had pandemics before in this country and they have taken millions of lives over the years.

During the influenza pandemic of 1918, otherwise known as the “Spanish Flu,” between 20 and 50 million people died. The worst hit demographic was adults between the ages of 20 and 40. In Maine, Cadillac hearses roamed the streets because there were so many people dying from the Spanish flu. Some of the ports along Maine’s coast were quarantined to help contain the virus and funerals could only last for 10 minutes because there were so many that it created a shortage of resources. In addition, there was a shortage of nurses and doctors in relation to those affected by the sickness, making matters even worse.

There are several similarities between that pandemic and the current swine flu. Some are saying today’s influenza virus is not going to be as bad as it was nearly 100 years ago while others are predicting the worst. Those are the people saying businesses will shut down because there will not be enough healthy people to work and millions of people could die as a result of the swine flu. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

The cost of having a funeral simply is not cheap. Between paying for the facility, the casket, the Cadillac hearse and the services required when a person dies, some people are simply overwhelmed and at the end of their rope. That’s why the Charity Bereavement Assistance organization in Australia is helping some families in that country give their deceased loved ones a proper burial.

While the organization does not help pay for the funeral, they do offer a less expensive alternative: A pauper’s funeral. But that does not mean they do not handle the bodies with respect. They treat each person with the utmost courtesy and dignity that they deserve. They simply offer “destitute burials,” which are low-cost burials in a pauper’s grave.

The recession has contributed to their business, too. They say they have had four times as many burials since the recession has gripped the nation and that there has been a “noticeable increase over the past six to 12 months.” Last year, the Charity Bereavement Assistance organization held services for about 150 paupers. They expect to do at least 200 this year and the number will likely grow to more than 400 in the next couple years.

Times are getting tough everywhere. Is there any end in sight?

A museum in Quebec is having an exhibit that showcases the historical and cultural aspects of death and dying in this Canadian city.

The exhibit, which is named “Celebrating the Dead: A Living Heritage,” focuses on the history of the funeral business in and around the Quebec region. It has displays of old-time hearses, a recreation of a dying person’s bedroom from 1890 and several other objects that people will find interesting.

“It’s not a morbid exhibition,” explained curator Stephane Chagnon in hopes of encouraging people to come visit the exhibit rather than scaring them off. “It’s an exhibition that’s fascinating to look at because of its objects and content.”

As you go through the displays, Chagnon talks about the history of funeral rituals in Quebec. “Before 1960 when someone died people took care of the dying person at home and after the death the body stayed there,” he explained. “Family members came to pay their last respects and the wake could last for three days.”

You will not see any Cadillac hearses on display at this exhibit as it focuses on the horse-drawn hearses of many decades ago. You will, however, learn a lot about how far we have come in the death business and how things have changed. You can decide for yourself if they have changed for the better or for the worse.

In part three of our discussion of the Texas Frightmare Weekend, we are going to discuss Alice Cooper’s role. During the early afternoon on Saturday, the Master of Shock was signing autographs for the plethora of fans that waited in line just to speak with him for a few seconds. Afterwards, he conducted a Question and Answer session for hundreds of fans in attendance. One of the most interesting (or disturbing) things he had to say was that comedies and horror movies were very similar because he could always find something laugh at in horror movies. He did admit, however, that The Exorcist scared him and he found nothing funny in that movie, but that may have been because Linda Blair was in attendance, too.

Another interesting horror celebrity in attendance was C.J. Graham, who played Jason in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. He signed a ton of autographs and chatted with fans, too. He no longer plays in horror movies but rather is in the upper management at a prominent Las Vegas casino.

Whether you love looking at tricked out Cadillac hearses, chatting with horror movie stars or simply enjoy macabre merchandise, you should check out next year’s Texas Frightmare Weekend. It’s a great way to get your fill of the macabre in one short weekend!