Death For Sale
The Funeral Industry Gets Kinder, Gentler, & More Caffeinated: A Report from the 2007 NFDA Convention
Rollin' rollin' rollin', keep those dogies movin'... Trails End Caskets from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, makes "Western Caskets for Western Personalities."
In early October, I traveled to Las Vegas where I attended the annual convention of the National Funeral Directors Association. What a blast! Me + 6000 funeral directors = Heaven!
I attended several workshops and seminars including “Is Your Firm Doing Business Like It’s 1979?”; one on how to add pet death care to a funeral home business for added revenue; and a workshop on the use of ritual in funerals held by Thomas Lynch, the funeral-director-turned-writer who penned The Undertaking a few years back.
Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo
Inside the Capuchin monks' catacombs.
This past June, I spent a week in Sicily, mostly in Palermo. The highlight of my trip was a visit to the catacombs of the Capuchin monks.
In our entire group, I was the only one running around with a big grin on my face. We arrived 20 minutes before closing—most retail establishments and non-restaurants close in Sicily at 12 or 1 pm and open again at 4—and so I shriek and am the first to race through the halls. Also the only one to wear a maniacal grin the whole way and to not-so-surreptitiously snap a few photos only to be stalked by a guy who yells No foto! Of course, I’m ignoring the signs everywhere that say NO FOTO NO FILM, but the non-flash pics come out better anyway.
