More bodies go unclaimed as families can't afford funeral costs

[ensho]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-unclaimed21-2009jul21,0,2534079.story


The poor economy is taking a toll even on the dead, with an increasing number of bodies in Los Angeles County going unclaimed by families who cannot afford to bury or cremate their loved ones.

At the county coroner's office -- which handles homicides and other suspicious deaths -- 36% more cremations were done at taxpayers' expense in the last fiscal year over the previous year, from 525 to 712.

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The county morgue, which is responsible for the indigent and others who go unclaimed, saw a 25% increase in cremations in the first half of this year over the same period a year ago, rising to 680 from 545.

The demands on the county crematorium have been so high that earlier this year, officials there stopped accepting bodies from the coroner. The coroner's office since has contracted with two private crematories for $135,000 to handle the overflow.

"It's a pretty dramatic increase," said Lt. David Smith, a coroner's investigator. "The families just tell us flat-out they don't have the money to do a funeral."

-snip-

Coroners and funeral directors around the country say they are seeing the same trend as cash-strapped families cope with funeral costs. Just claiming a body from the L.A. County coroner costs $200. Once a body is claimed, private cremations usually run close to $1,000, Smith said. Funeral homes charge an average of $7,300 to transport and bury a body in a simple grave, according to the National Funeral Home Directors Assn.

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"We've had families try to have car washes and other little fundraising events. . . . They try to do right," he said.
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damn

[Vinca]

1. Not only can't you afford to stay healthy, you can't afford to die.

[ensho]

2. kick

nt

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. So true

[mtnester]

4. Let me tell you how impossible it is to say

"I think we need to get a cheaper casket" when it is your mother, and you don't know the final damages until they present at the end of your session.

$17,000.00 +...your stomach drops but you suck it up and pay it somehow because you are not, in your awful fresh grief, going to quibble now.

And in your terrible grief, with a sudden unexpected loss, you are NOT going BACK in that casket room and pick out a cheaper casket, because the first time in there nearly dropped you. And if you live in an area that requires a vault you simply nod yes and move on.

It is a horrible horrible circumstance, and a "gotcha" situation to boot.

I am sure MANY of you have been right in this same exact place and know what I am trying to say (and doing a poor job of it I might add...just thinking about it brings back pain, and now after 5 years, anger)

[Ewellian]

5. We need a public option

to compete with the funeral industry to bring down costs. It's immoral to allow anyone to make a profit from death.

[MineralMan]

6. The industry built on grief is obscene.

I saw it in action when my FIL died. He had requested cremation, and was cremated, but the hard sell was on when his widow was at the funeral place. They tried to sell her everything under the sun, from four-digit vases to bury his ashes in to the most ridiculous mementos imaginable.

Fortunately, she made no decisions until she discussed it with the rest of her family. He was buried in the National Cemetery here, with a portion of his ashes buried in a cemetary in his hometown. No fancy crap was purchased that would be buried and gone forever. A memorial service was held in the church he attended at almost no cost.

Since his daughter (my wife) is a professional writer, we wrote and placed the obituary in the local paper, which charged an enormous fee for this "advertisement." Feh!

My wife and I have prepaid our cremation expenses since that time and will have a small gathering in our home when one of us is gone. That's it. I get dumped in the Mississippi river and she wants her ashes scattered in several places.

Those who make large sums of money on the grief of others deserve our condemnation, in my opinion.

[ensho]

7. anyone seen the series Six Feet Under?

great story about undertakers, great writing and great acting