Funeral Assistance

The “Dear Abby” column recently included a letter concerning a person who had been sold a $1,200 casket which the mortician told her was burned with the body of the deceased. She was concerned that she might have been cheated.

Abby consulted John Blake, executive director of the nonprofit consumer education organization, the Continental Assn. of Funeral and Memorial Societies. He stated that no casket is required in cases of cremation, that usually only a sturdy cardboard container that any mortuary could sell profitably for $30 would be needed.

I know the morticians of Ventura County intimately; as president of Channel Islands Memorial Society, I call on them annually to inspect their premises and compile a comparative list of the prices they charge. Not one of those honest merchants would try to sell a casket where cremation is involved.

Having said that, I must hasten to add that every mortician is a business person. As such, he or she wants to sell as much of the available goods and services as is reasonably possible. And any merchant would prefer selling a casket costing $2,000 to one costing $800, or an expensive vault to a cheap grave liner.

It’s important to note that Abby referred her readers to the Continental Assn. for information on dignified, low-cost funerals. The Channel Islands Memorial Society, one of 175 Continental Assn. members in the U.S. and Canada, can offer this information locally. Just send a self-addressed, stamped business-size envelope to CCMS, P.O. Box 4755, Ventura, CA 93007.

JOHN BUCHANAN

Ventura