Ask a Mortician- Episode 13

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Ask a Mortician, Episode 13

Ask a Mortician- Episode Ten

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Ask a Mortician- Episode 5

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Ask a Mortician- Episode 4

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Ask A Mortician- Episode One

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Funeral March for a Marionette

Love this! Enjoy!

"Did You Know?" Part 2 - fact or fiction?

Did you know... In Czechoslovakia, there is a church that has a chandelier made out of human bones. 

The sound of bells drives away demons because they're afraid of the loud noise. When a bell rings, a new angel has received his wings.

 A bird in the house is a sign of a death. If a robin flies into a room through a window, death will shortly follow.

 If you get a chill up your back or goosebumps, it means that someone is walking over your grave. Light candles on the night after November 1. One for each deceased relative should be placed in the window in the room where death occurred. 

You must hold your breath while going past a cemetery or you will breathe in the spirit of someone who has recently died. If a clock which has not been working suddenly chimes, there will be a death in the family. You will have bad luck if you do not stop the clock in the room where someone dies.

 If a woman is buried in black, she will return to haunt the family. If a dead person's eyes are left open, he'll find someone to take with him. Mirrors in a house with a corpse should be covered or the person who sees himself will die next.

 If you dream of death it's a sign of a birth, if you dream of birth, it's a sign of death.

 If you touch a loved one who has died, you won't have dreams about them A person who dies on Good Friday will go right to heaven. A person who dies at midnight on Christmas Eve will go straight to heaven because the gates of heaven are open at that time. All windows should be opened at the moment of death so that the soul can leave. The soul of a dying person can't escape the body and go to heaven if any locks are locked in the house. If the left eye twitches there will soon be a death in the family. If a dead person's eyes are left open, he'll find someone to take with him.

 Funerals on Friday portend another death in the family during the year. It's bad luck to count the cars in a funeral cortege. It's bad luck to meet a funeral procession head on. Thunder following a funeral means that the dead person's soul has reached heaven. Nothing new should be worn to a funeral, especially new shoes. Pointing at a funeral procession will cause you to die within the month Pregnant women should not attend funerals.

 If the person buried lived a good life, flowers will grow on the grave. If the person was evil, weeds will grow.

 If a mirror in the house falls and breaks by itself, someone in the house will die soon. 

 A white moth inside the house or trying to enter the house means death.

 If 3 people are photographed together, the one in the middle will die first.

 If 13 people sit down at a table to eat, one of them will die before the year is over.

 Dropping an umbrella on the floor means that there will be a murder in the house. 

Edgar Allen Poe Finally Getting Proper Funeral

(AP) For Edgar Allan Poe, 2009 has been a better year than 1849. After dozens of events in several cities to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth, he's about to get the grand funeral that a writer of his stature should have received when he died.

One hundred sixty years ago, the beleaguered, impoverished Poe was found, delirious and in distress outside a Baltimore tavern. He was never coherent enough to explain what had befallen him since leaving Richmond, Va., a week earlier. He spent four days in a hospital before he died at age 40.

Poe's cousin, Neilson Poe, never announced his death publicly. Fewer than 10 people attended the hasty funeral for one of the 19th century's greatest writers. And the injustices piled on. Poe's tombstone was destroyed before it could be installed, when a train derailed and crashed into a stonecutter's yard. Rufus Griswold, a Poe enemy, published a libelous obituary that damaged Poe's reputation for decades.

But on Sunday, Poe's funeral will get an elaborate do-over, with two services expected to draw about 350 people each _ the most a former church next to his grave can hold. Actors portraying Poe's contemporaries and other long-dead writers and artists will pay their respects, reading eulogies adapted from their writings about Poe.

"We are following the proper etiquette for funerals. We want to make it as realistic as possible," said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum.

Advance tickets are sold out, although Jerome will make some seats available at the door to ensure packed houses. Fans are traveling from as far away as Vietnam.

The funeral is arguably the splashiest of a year's worth of events honoring the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth. Along with Baltimore _ where he spent some of his leanest years in the mid-1830s _ Poe lived in or has strong connections to Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Richmond.

With the funeral angle covered, the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond staged a re-enactment last weekend of his death. Those with a more academic interest in Poe can attend the Poe Studies Association's annual conference from Thursday through Sunday in Philadelphia.

Visitors in Baltimore for the funeral can enjoy a new exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art, "Edgar Allan Poe: A Baltimore Icon," which includes chilling illustrations to "The Raven" by Edouard Manet.

Baltimore has a decided advantage over the other cities that lay claim to Poe, notes BMA director Doreen Bolger. "We have the body," she said.

This week, that's true in more ways than one. Jerome said he's gotten calls from people who thought he was going to exhume Poe's remains and rebury them.

"When they dug up Poe's body in 1875 to move it, it was mostly skeletal remains," Jerome said. "I've seen remains of people who've been in the ground since that time period, and there's hardly anything left."

Instead, Jerome commissioned local special-effects artist Eric Supensky to create an eerily lifelike _ or deathlike _ mock-up of Poe's corpse.

"I got chills," Jerome said Monday upon seeing the body for the first time. "This is going to freak people out."

The body will lie in state for 12 hours Wednesday at the Poe House, a tiny rowhome in a gritty section of west Baltimore. Visitors are invited to pay their respects.

Following the viewing will be an all-night vigil at Poe's grave at Westminster Burying Ground. Anyone who attends will have the opportunity to deliver a tribute.

On Sunday morning, a horse-drawn carriage will transport the replica of Poe's body from his former home to the graveyard for the funeral.

Actor John Astin, best known as Gomez Addams on TV's "The Addams Family," will serve as master of ceremonies.

"It's sort of a way of saying, 'Well, Eddie, your first funeral wasn't a very good one, but we're going to try to make it up to you, because we have so much respect for you,'" said Asin, who toured as Poe for years in a one-man show.

The service won't be a total lovefest, however. The first eulogy will come from none other than Griswold.

"People are asking me, 'Jeff, why are you inviting him? He hated Poe!'" Jerome said. "The reason is, most of these people defended Poe in response to what he said about Poe's life, so we can't have this service without having old Rufus sitting in the front row, spewing forth his hatred."

Eulogies will follow from actors portraying, among others, Sarah Helen Whitman, a minor poet whom Poe courted after his wife's death, and Walt Whitman, who attended the dedication of Poe's new gravestone in 1875 but didn't feel well enough to speak. Writers and artists influenced by Poe, including Arthur Conan Doyle and Alfred Hitchcock, will also be represented.

Jerome expects to cry _ one reason he won't be speaking. Even his rivals are impressed with the scale of the tribute.

"Annoyed as I am with Baltimore sometimes, I have to give them credit," said Philadelphia-based Poe scholar Edward Pettit, who argues his city was of greater importance to Poe's life and literary career. "Baltimore has done an awful lot to maintain the legacy of Poe over the last 100-some years."

(Sorce)

S. Carolina Funeral Home Closed After Dismembering Corpse to Fit in Casket

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See the video here


WAGT
Published: June 3, 2009

The South Carolina funeral board revoked the licenses of an Allendale funeral home and funeral director accused of cutting off the legs of a man too tall for his casket.

The Board of Funeral Service voted Monday to revoke the funeral director Michael Cave’s license and the license of Cave Funeral Services of Allendale after months of investigation.

According a document released by the South Carolina Department Of Labor and Licensing, a funeral home employee used an electric saw to cut off James Hines’ lower legs so he would fit in a casket that he was too tall for.

The body of James Hines was exhumed back in March after investigators acted on a tip that Hines legs were cut off in 2004 when he was buried.

The family requested a larger casket because Hines was 6’7” and couldn’t fit in a normal casket.

A former employee of Cave Funeral Services says Hines was too tall for the casket he paid for before his death and said the funeral home didn’t want to pay for a larger casket.

Hines’ widow, Ann, says the family is somewhat relieved the funeral home has been shutdown and the director’s license revoked, but they still wonder why it happened to their loved one.

For the first time since the rumors began almost five years ago, Ann says Cave Funeral Services apologized to her and the family for all they’ve had to go through.

The Board of Funeral Services fined Cave for the violation and he must also pay $1,500 for the investigation into his business.





This is why people always say "Try before you buy!". You could end up with your legs cut off.

Interesting Epitaph

There is also an article on him in wikipedia. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_Allison

The Big Sleep ... On Film

Postmortem photography, photographing a deceased person, was a common practice in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These photographs were often the only ones taken of their subjects and much pride and artistry went into them. They were a common aspect of American culture and part of the mourning and memorialization process.

One of the reasons that postmortem photography was popular was due to the high mortality rate of babies and children. Frankly put, people died young. Relatives who had not seen their family member’s children could be sent a picture. As taking pictures weren't the norm, if a child died before a photo had been taken, this would be the only opportunity to get a picture of him or her to relatives. It was also felt that having a last picture of the deceased would quicken the grieving process and pay tribute to the deceased. During this time period, it was common to hang up framed pictures of the dead.

During 1840 to 1880, postmortem photos typically only showed the upper half of the body. This is from the idea that death was the “last sleep.” It was fashionable to make the dead look as if they were merely asleep. Those who used this style would place the body in a chair or sitting on a sofa with books, crosses or rosary beads in the deceased person’s hand. Children were placed in a stroller or cradle.

After 1880 and until about 1915, it became more popular to photograph the entire body of the deceased. These photos were usually taken of the dead in the casket. The change in trends is probably due to the practice of embalming now being possible, as well as the popular use of a lot of flowers placed around the coffin. The body would last longer and the casket setting at a funeral home made for a more aesthetically pleasing photo.

After 1880, it was common to have living family members in the photograph with the deceased. If a child died, he or she may be photographed being held in the mother’s lap. People long to have some record of the child, and that may be the only opportunity. In some photos, pictures of deceased adults can be seen lying in bed with family members sitting on the bed around them. Other families gathered around the coffin for a last photo.

Victorian Death and Mourning Rituals

The Victorians had an obsession with death. The results of their obsession produced some of the most ornate, unusual, and beautiful examples of funerary ritual, mourning ornaments, cemeteries, and sepulchral monuments ever created. The Victorian era (1837-1901) was one of great formality. There were formal rituals for every one of life’s milestones, holidays, birthdays, weddings, but by far the most elaborate rituals were reserved for the funeral.



The Victorian attitude toward death was that it was inevitable. Like any other part of living one must be prepared to die. The mortality rate was quite high in this era. A man in the middle 1800’s could expect to live to between 18 and 38 years old on average. The infant mortality rate was very high, and death was often an unwelcome but expected visitor. This way of thinking enabled one to plan ahead and make well in advance arrangements to have as large and ornate a sending off as one could afford. To the Victorians a “parish funeral” (a funeral paid for out of the parish coffers) or worse yet a “paupers funeral” (a funeral which was non descript and paid for by the state) was the ultimate public humiliation, and was to be avoided at all cost! Every Victorian was accustomed to the many lavish and complex rituals and social expectations of their society, including the elaborate means to which they celebrated death and mourning with a style never equaled. (The Victorian Undertaker 4-5).



DEATH ARRIVES

Death in Victorian society was treated with an elaborate, solemn reverence. In middle to upper class families, the front door would be adorned with a large black, crape (a stiff, black fabric used by the Victorians exclusively for mourning and funerary needs) covered wreath, while inside lights were kept dim, and clocks were stopped. All mirrors were covered with a sheet of black crape lest the spirit of the newly departed become trapped inside the mirror. The deceased would be laid out in a simple wooden coffin, covered with satin and crape, until the newly ordered coffin could be delivered. In cases of a lingering illness, the final coffin may have been ordered well in advance and would be used. According to The Victorian Undertaker, the well-known actress Sarah Bernhardt is said to have kept her coffin with her at all times even having her photograph taken in it (3). The corpse might remain in the house for as long as twelve days surrounded by floral tributes and a lit candle at all times. Funerals were usually held on Sundays since that was not a day of work. A funeral might have to be delayed while arrangements are made and family members gather money, in order to provide the most lavish rites possible.



BLACK BECOMES HER

The family and especially the widow, if the deceased were a married man, would don all black mourning clothes. These clothes were specially made, and were specific to mourning. They would not be worn for any other occasion, and were to be burned after the mourning period. New mourning attire would need to be purchased for every death. Even the style, cut, and types of fabric and trims used on them had complex etiquette rules. Women had the heaviest social burden when it came to mourning. A widow would have to wear what was referred to as deep mourning for the period of at least a year and a day. Everything down to her stockings had to reflect her social status. “If she lifts her skirts from the mud, she must show by her frilled black silk petticoat and plain black stockings her grief has penetrated to her innermost sanctuaries” The Gentlewoman’s Book of Dress (c.1890. qtd. In The Victorian Undertaker 19). After the year and a day, certain other fabrics in dark purples or grays could be included in the wardrobe, but again there were complex social rules that applied. Basically it was not proper for a woman to spend less that two full years in mourning. The socially acceptable rules about what was proper to be worn in the time of mourning also included jewelry.



Primarily, mourning jewelry is made from jet (a deep black coal like stone) both highly polished and dull finish was used on the stone. There were also lower cost substitutes such as French jet (black glass) and Vulcanite or Ebonite (hardened India rubber, mixed with sulfur.) (The Victorian Celebration of Death 201). The metal settings might be of gold or silver but they always had a dull finish. In addition, the Victorians made an art of hair jewelry. In the case of mourning, hair cut from the deceased would be woven into a small braid or flower like twist and enclosed within a broach or woven into a bracelet or necklace to be worn by a grieving family member after the period of deep mourning. Hair of the departed would also be woven into miniature works of art, forming tiny pictures. Lockets and hand made cards containing tiny hair flowers were often made as keepsakes. Aside from ones wedding ring, which was usually covered by black gloves of leather or lace, this type of jewelry was the only acceptable adornment.



NECESSITIES AND COMMEMORATIVES

Wreaths and flower arrangements that included the use of black crape would be ordered quickly, so that they could adorn the house and room where the deceased would lie in state. The abundance of flowers also served the purpose of helping to cover the odor of decay coming from the decomposing corpse.

The family, for all written correspondence would use mourning stationary. A widow would use it the length of her period of mourning. Plain white or cream paper with heavy black embossing, this item was often ordered along with Memorial Cards for the deceased. Commonly used symbols would include, urns, angels, willow trees and ivy. The Victorians commonly used calling cards, something akin to today’s business card, when they would “call on” or visit a home or business. The Memorial card was used in much the same way; the family would hand a memorial card to all that came to pay their respects to the recently departed. Most were quite elaborately embossed and always included the name and date of death of the newly expired. (The Victorian Undertaker 21-22, The Victorian Celebration of Death 202-203). Many sorts of commemorative items might be produced. Handkerchiefs with black borders or teardrop motifs, black fans with ribbons, paperweights, and even hand made picture books which would include “last” photos of family members in death were very typical, and gave the family a lasting memory of those who had gone to eternity. Victorian art centering on the theme of death was both commemorative and symbolic. And the Victorians found nothing morbid about such keepsakes.



THE BIG EVENT

Burial Societies were common. They existed for all levels of society. There were even ethnically specialized societies, such as The Italian Benevolent Society. The members would pay weekly dues, which for the very poor might be only a penny. And upon the death of the member, the society would cover all the costs of a moderate funeral such as befitted the members social standing. (The Victorian Undertaker 10,11). These societies often had large, deep monuments into which members could be interred. This helped defray the cost of a single plot, and sexton to dig the grave. Even the very destitute would willingly go into heavy debt to pay for a funeral, rather than endure the shame of a pauper’s funeral. The idea of Cremation was not popularly accepted until the later part of the nineteenth century. It was thought to be against sacrament and the resurrection of the body. (The Victorian Undertaker 27).

It was customary to hire a livery, preferably a “coach and four” (hearse and team of four dark horses) to transport the celebrated deceased through the streets of the town and down to the cemetery gates. Mourners, including the family, would follow in many cases on foot. Upper class funerals would often have family and guests transported to the cemetery in small black carriages, with black curtains drawn closed. Everyone in the procession would be draped in black. Men in tall black top hats with scarves of black crape, women in their finest mourning gowns, with shawls of black and large, black hats covered with black crape and lace. The walking entourage would include “mutes” (hired professional mourners) who would carry tall polls decorated with yards of draped black crape. Following the mutes would be a man carrying a “featherboard”, which was a huge tall display of dyed black ostrich feathers. The number of mutes and featherboards in a funeral was usually an indication of the wealth of the family of the departed. A large upper class funeral might have as many as fourteen to twenty mutes in the procession. A funeral could never be too ostentatious. (The Victorian Undertaker 3,12, The Victorian Celebration of Death 195). Then came the hearse. The horses would be adorned with headdresses of tall black plumes also made of ostrich feathers. In some cases the horses would be dusted with coal dust to give their coats a dull, deep black finish. The best hearses would have glass panel sides to allow the gathering crowds of onlookers a peek inside at the coffin. (The Victorian Celebration of Death 205).


THE COFFIN

The coffin was often made of lead or wood. Wood coffins might be of elm or mahogany. Metal trim and moldings made of pressed tin would be applied to dress them up, and metal handles inserted for carrying. Great care was taken it the appearance of a coffin. Even if it was a less expensive model, the presentation was such that it could appear to be the finest as it passed through town on its way to the gravesite.

The lead coffin came into being due to the Victorian family’s concern that after interment, the grave would be opened and the body removed to be sold in the black market to medical schools. This was a common practice in the Victorian era. Bodies obtained legally were scarce, and private doctors as well as medical schools were in need of cadavers for medical research and anatomy study. The profession of grave robbing could be quite lucrative in the right part of the city. Lead coffins would be sealed shut against such an invasion. And it was in this era that the practice of digging the grave at least six feet deep began, as further protection against would be grave robbers. (The Bedside Book of Death 53-83).


FEARS

The fear of being buried prematurely is one that has been shared by all humans since recorded history. The Victorians were no exception. There were many well-known stories about the newly deceased suddenly waking up at their wake or in their coffin ready for burial. When the famous Les Innocents Cemetery in Paris, France was moved from the center of the city to its outskirts, a large number of coffins were found to contain skeletons lying on their fronts. Some were found with hands up in front of them, as though they were trying to push the coffin open.

These fears prompted some individuals to create elaborate alarm systems, to enable the “corpse” to alert the living that they had indeed only been asleep. Such devices would enable a person mistakenly buried, to ring a bell above ground using a pull rope that had been wound around their wrist, fed up through a hole in the coffin, and run through a hollow tube to an attached bell. Similarly, a hollow tube would be positioned into a hole in the coffin top above the face of the deceased. If they should awake after burial and begin calling out, it was assumed they would be heard by the cemetery sexton or nearby mourners, and could be rescued from the clutches of death. (The Bedside Book of Death 15-35).


There was a young man at Nunhead

Who awoke in his coffin of lead

‘It was cosy enough,’

He remarked in a huff,

‘But I wasn’t aware I was dead.’


Anonymous Victorian limerick (The Bedside Book of Death 25).





THE CEMETERY

The Victorians viewed the cemetery as a place for both the living and the dead. It was not uncommon for cemeteries to be crowded on weekends, especially on Sundays. Families having picnics, folks taking a stroll, or taking the baby in a carriage for some fresh air. The cemetery was a favorite place for young unmarried couples to spend some alone time, while well chaperoned in the midst of a crowd.

Huge garden cemeteries became all the rage both in the United States and abroad. One of the most notable garden cemeteries upon whose design and landscape many American garden cemeteries were based is the splendid Pere-Lachaise, in France. Pere-Lachaise is home to the monuments of many a famous historical figure, but it is renowned for its landscape and garden architecture the world over. In more recent times, it has become known as the final resting-place for its most visited tenant, Jim Morrison, late of the American rock band The Doors. (The Last Great Necessity 99-109).

If nothing else, the Victorians specialized in the ornate, and they did it unlike anyone else. Around 1855, American cities such as Cincinnati, Ohio, with its Spring Grove Cemetery, began to build new and redesign some existing cemeteries into huge memorial garden parks. They became places of tranquility and beauty. Landscaping, walk ways, and even the addition of streams or lakes helped to transform the parks from just a place for the slumbering dead, to a place for the living to commune and feel close to those who were interred there. Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York; Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are but a few existing examples of some of Americas most ornate Victorian garden parks. (The Last Great Necessity 101-103, Victorian Cemetery Art v-xiii).

It was during the Victorian era that grave markers and monuments became so ornate and detailed, that they are considered classic works of sculpture today. Victorians had a taste for the ornate; the more fluff and detail the better. Unlike the relatively plain flat markers of today, Victorian grave markers were created to be permanent, loving, detailed tributes to the dead. Markers in honor of the dead had a wide variety of designs. Among the better known are the classic arch, the cross, human figures, wreaths and angels. On many of these markers the artistic craftsmanship is exquisite. Before the 1970’s most of the carvings were done by hand using classic sculpting tools and techniques. Today modern artists use computer aided lasers to carve the intricate monuments. Classical styles in art abound in some of the larger cemeteries. In addition to the more classic designs, Victorians often used ornate symbolism such as the upside down torch- signifying life extinguished, the broken column- representing a life cut short, tree stumps- signaling life cut off, open and closed books -to represent life as a story unfinished.


KEEPSAKES

Gravestone rubbing first came into being as a way to keep a memento of a deceased loved one. Much less expensive than a photograph, even the less well to do could obtain this simple keepsake using paper and a flat piece of charcoal. The work would be displayed framed and hung in the home just as a photo of a family member might be mounted in a place of honor. Today, gravestone rubbings are taken mainly for their artistic beauty. Victorian grave markers produce the most beautiful rubbings, due to their ornate designs.

A Victorian having a glimpse of our modern death rituals today, would most likely be taken back at the lack of personal family attention given to the corpse. Photos of a loved one in death and locks of their hair are considered morbid and unthinkable in today’s society. And while it is still fairly common to see family and friends dressed in black mourning on the day of the funeral, the strict rules of Victorian society and etiquette in regard to death and mourning have been all but forgotten. Very few cemeteries today allow the grand sepulchral monuments of the Victorian era, instead allowing only landscape flush stone or metal markers.

Fortunately for taphophiles such as myself, the grand memorial park cemeteries have endured the twentieth century, standing as a permanent, living reminders of a complicated, grand, and spectacular age gone by.


© Wendy 2004