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One of the sad consequences of the recent financial crisis is the number of people feeling hopeless, helpless and defeated. As a result, workplace suicides were at an all-time high last year.

Hearses carried away about 251 people from their workplace after they committed suicide. That’s a 28 percent increase as more and more workers are getting laid off and others are getting their paychecks cut through demotions, fewer hours and overall cuts in wages. The odd thing about the findings is that the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced a 10 percent drop of total workplace deaths during the same time period. Those numbers represent the lowest number of deaths in nearly twenty years!

The number of workplace homicides also dropped in 2008 by 18 percent. Most of the 517 workplace homicides last year were by shooting, which is 52 percent fewer than the 1,080 that occurred in 1994.

Several studies have discusses the psychological impact that the economic crisis has had on workers. More than 30 percent of homeowners in the United States are going through foreclosure and other financial worries, causing high rates of depression and other problems.

Don’t be another statistic getting taken away from your job in a Cadillac hearse. There is hope and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Just be patient and diligent and things will get better. And if you are having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-SUICIDE.

On Wednesday, we told you about a mix-up at a Philadelphia-area funeral home that occurred earlier this month. We left off talking about the funeral director announcing the news that the bodies got mixed up and the one that was supposed to be on one side of town was actually at a funeral home on the other side of town and vice versa. But the story does not end there.

The funeral director called the funeral home that actually had the body of Kenneth Roberts. He told employees there to bring the body the other funeral home. When the employees arrived and opened the back door of the Cadillac hearse, the casket was tilted and the legs of the deceased were hanging outside of the lid.

The funeral director suspects the employees were so concerned about getting the body of Kenneth Roberts to the correct funeral home that they probably drove somewhat recklessly and hit a few bumps along the way. In turn, the probably caused the lid of the casket to get jiggled open and the deceased legs bounced out.

I haven’t read any reports about what the funeral director did to make the situation right. It seems like a tragic chain of errors at the most unfortunate time.

A mix-up at a funeral home in Philadelphia earlier this month left two mourners hospitalized and many more traumatized.

According to the Philadelphia Daily News, the family of Kenneth “Tex” Roberts was distressed and hysterical when they found out the body in the casket before them was not the person they thought it was. The body was dressed in Roberts’ suit, but it was a different man. The grieving 80-year-old widow told an employee at the James L. Hawkins Funeral Home that the man did not look like her husband, but the employee just chalked up her remark to her being grief-stricken and confused.

However, other people said the same thing which prompted the employees and funeral director to take a closer look. What they found was distressing. Apparently, there was a mix-up and the body of Kenneth Roberts was at a funeral home across town owned by the same people. Upon hearing the news, one mourner had a severe asthma attack and another had a seizure. Both were rushed to a local hospital for treatment.

As if that’s not bad enough, the problems continued as pallbearers prepared to take the casket out of the Cadillac hearse. Come back on Friday to read rest of the story of this debacle.

Janet Kolar, owner of Mineral Springs Haunted Tours in Alton, Illinois, recently added a new white Cadillac hearse to her fleet or touring vehicles. It’s a great addition to a tour that is already a popular attraction in the area.

The white Cadillac hearse, which Kolar dubbed “Pearl,” was a great find for Kolar. She searched for four years for a white hearse before finding Pearl about three months ago. She had to drive 300 miles just to buy the Cadillac hearse which is over 20 years old.

“It’s in excellent condition,” Kolar said. “It came out of funeral service just a few months before I bought it.” Pearl will lead a cemetery procession tour on Saturday, August 29 to the Alton Cemetery.

Kolar operates the tour company and it is in one of the most haunted towns in the United States. The tour begins at the “most haunted building in Alton” and her tour allows ghost enthusiasts into the Mineral Springs Mall. That might not seem like a big deal, but the mall used to be a hotel where many guests died either by being murdered or by killing themselves.

If you are in the Illinois area, check out the Mineral Springs Haunted Tours. They are a great way to see the haunted side of the region while experiencing the history of the area as well.

You may notice a changing funeral scene in recent years. With the whole green movement going on, fewer people are choosing to have Cadillac hearses take them from the funeral home to their final resting place. But now, fewer people are opting to have clergy perform the funeral services.

The choice to forego clergy at funeral services, though, has nothing to do with going green. Instead, they are choosing “celebrants” that usually work for the funeral homes.

“What we’ve found in the past decade is that when you ask people whether they want a minister, people say, ‘Not interested,’” explained William McQueen, the president of Anderson-McQueen Funeral and Cremation Centers in Florida. Today, clergy-led funerals only make up about half of all funeral services while 30 percent of families choose to have a family member lead the ceremony or simply have no ceremony at all. And about 25 percent of U.S. adults surveyed said they do not expect to have a religious service when they die.

How do you feel about this? Would you still choose to have a clergy-led funeral for yourself or would you rather have a family member or celebrant present instead of a minister? Let us know your thoughts below.

We all know about the group from the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas that goes around protesting funerals across the country. But has the press given them more coverage than they deserve?

One columnist asked this question earlier this month as hundreds of people gathered to protest the protestors outside of Congregation Emanuel on Chicago’s North Side. The columnist chose not to cover the protest and counter-protest that night.

The protestors from Kansas have created such a stir that at least 22 states have either proposed or passed laws that limit the rights of protestors at funerals, funeral homes, and memorials.

It seems now that Fred Phelps and his crew are protesting the funerals of Jewish people. At the Chicago incident, they were holding signs that read things like “Jews Killed God” and other despicable things as Cadillac hearses drove by. Later that night, they tried to protest at a fundraiser at which legendary comedian Don Rickles was performing, but they were stopped by other comedians outside the event.

How much coverage should we be giving these people who are clearly on the fringe of society? Should we be talking about their protests and their motives to let people know what’s going on or does the coverage give them a level of legitimacy that they should not get? Let us know your thoughts about this below in the comments section.

In case you have not noticed, there is an obesity problem in America. With fast food being cheap and fewer people exercising, people seem to just get bigger and bigger. The problem is not only contributing to the number of deaths due to heart disease and other problems, but it is also changing the look of the funeral industry…literally.

Manufacturers that produce funeral products are realizing the need to make “supersized” products to accommodate larger bodies. According to Funeral-Caskets.com, caskets have a standard size of 28 inches wide, 84 inches long and 23 inches high. That’s plenty of room to accommodate average bodies. But now some casket manufacturers have begun making caskets 37 inches wide for larger people.

“Most people are getting larger,” explained Bob Mayhew, owner of the Mayhew Funeral Home in Ohio. “People are eating more and, in most cases, a standard casket will not be usable.”

As a result of larger caskets, Cadillac hearses must also be redesigned to accommodate the larger size. You may start seeing these larger hearses on the roads as obesity continues to be a problem and manufacturers are doing what they can to accommodate the larger deceased people with dignity.

In July, the state of Illinois announced that it would not pay for any further funerals for people who cannot afford to pay for them. However, that decision has been reversed.

The Illinois Department of Human Services informed funeral homes and directors throughout the state earlier this month that they would begin reimbursing them for funeral costs once again. The state only covers a maximum of $1,600 per burial, so that does not leave room for any extravagances like Cadillac hearses or things like that. But Illinois officials estimate the state pays out about $15 million each year on about 10,000 burials for those who have no family or estate that can pay for the services.

Funeral directors throughout Illinois were worried that they would be stuck with the costs of the burial services once the announcement was made. They were told “payments were on hold until 2010.”

“We are certainly glad to see a resolution to the issue facing Illinois’ funeral and burial budget,” explained Scott Olson, general manager of a funeral home in Rockford. “Regardless of the current status of the economy, this expense has always been a burden to many families.”

In Syracuse earlier this week, hundreds of people gathered to witness a mock funeral procession to bring awareness to the senseless violence in the area. One of the Cadillac hearses used in the procession of funeral cars was donated to the cause by the DeWitt Memorial Funeral Home. This was the same facility that handled the services for Troy Mim, a teenage boy who was fatally shot one year ago on the same date the procession was held.

The mock procession ended at Clinton Square. At that point, a casket was unloaded from one of the hearses as pallbearers carried it through the crowd. From that point, a number of community and religious leaders made speeches about the dangers of violence while remembering the victims over the last several years.

“With the casket and pallbearers, it was very symbolic,” said Helen Hudson, the president of the mothers group involved in the coordination of the event. Others thought the mock funeral and hearses sent a message to the community that said this could be any one of their sons or daughters in the casket if they do not step up and take responsibility for their actions.

How do you feel about demonstrations like this that are designed to make a point? Are they crossing the line by mocking a funeral? Or do they need to do things like this to get everybody’s attention? Let us know your thoughts below.

If you didn’t know any better, you might have thought there was a very important funeral going on a couple days ago on the streets of Syracuse. A number of Cadillac hearses, mock mourners and funeral cars lined some roadways as protestors gathered to voice their opposition to the violence that’s been going on in the area.

“I’ve just been to so many funerals that it’s crazy,” said 16-year-old Zakia Holmes, a student at Fowler High School. She said she has been to too many funerals for her friends in the last few years and it’s time for the violence to stop. She hoped this last mock funeral will touch the community and help put an end to the senseless violence.

About 200 people came to the first “Funeral to Bury Violence” earlier this week. It was coordinated by Mothers Against Gun Violence, the Trauma Response Team and the Community Peacemakers. It began with a mock funeral procession with hearses and funeral cars driving down Jefferson and Salina streets towards Clinton Square. One black hearse displayed a mural showing how violence has shattered the life of the family of Troy Mims, a teenage victim of gun violence who was shot one year ago.

We’d like to discuss this event more. Come back on Wednesday as we delve deeper into this mock funeral and its implications on the surrounding community.