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When a person thinks of death, there are a few scenes that come to mind. The most common is probably seeing the deceased laying peacefully in a casket. Another scene might be the funeral cars and the Cadillac hearse transporting the body to the final burial grounds. But the obituary is a very important part of a funeral and getting closure on a person’s passing.

Joan Harvey is one obituary writer that has written more than 10,000 of the delicate pieces for The Oregonian. She was recently interviewed by Digital Dying and had many interesting things to say about her job over the years. Here are some highlights of that interview.

• Harvey began reading obituaries when her mom’s friend passed away. That caused her to begin writing them because she realized they were more about “a history for the whole community” rather than just a “source of information about a person.”
• It seems like the number of deaths attributed to overdoses occurred when the weather started getting nice. Other patterns and trends seem curious, but she says there is nothing scientific about them.
• Harvey looks at her job as writing about peoples’ lives instead of writing about death.

Seems like an interesting job and an interesting viewpoint that Harvey has on her job. You can read the full interview here.

Have you already prepaid for your funeral and the amenities like Cadillac hearses to go along with it? If so, there is nothing wrong with taking a second look at your agreement.

Bailey Funeral Service, a mortuary in Fredericksburg, Virginia, has been charged with scamming as many as 60 people who had the forethought to pay for their funerals, hearses and other services ahead of time. Local police executed a search warrant on July 23 to collect evidence of the matter. So far, they found several pre-need funeral payments (some dating back nearly three decades) that were spend on personal items instead of business expenses.

“We found a box of documents containing over 60 files all related to pre-arranged funeral services, and we at this point have 22 confirmed victims representing over $90,000 where their money was not going into an escrow account as is legally required,” explained Natatia Bledsoe with the Fredericksburg Police Department.

The investigation started when one woman who prepaid for her funeral saw a news story about the service’s owner forging doctor signatures. She called the local police to ask if her pre-need money was safe as a result of the crimes. The police began an investigation at that time and found much more than they thought.

Do you have a prepaid funeral plan? If so, it doesn’t hurt to make sure your money is safe by double checking with the funeral home and your particular state.

Burying the poor with dignity and respect is something that has been around for centuries. Today, most states pay for a proper burial when a homeless person dies or when someone who cannot afford a funeral and has no family passes away. But Illinois is putting the kibosh on this expense in an effort to save money.

In defense of Illinois and the lawmakers who made the decision, the state typically pays for about 10,000 burials every year. That’s a total of $15 million in expenses for burial plots, hearses, and other amenities.

Various cities and states have different practices when it comes to burying its penniless dead. In New York City, for example, prisoners get paid up to 35 cents an hour to bury people on a particular island. In Cleveland, the city has a field where they bury people who could not afford their own service and Cadillac hearses. Many of the dead in New Orleans are buried in Holt Cemetery which has modest decorations.

What do you think about the actions of the state of Illinois to stop picking up the tab for this grave matter? Do you think they have to put a stop to it in order to save money or should they continue paying the cost of burying the poor dead? Let us know your thoughts below.