on the cover / By Bob Doran

After You’re Dead

Home funerals, memorial reefs, natural cemeteries and the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Humboldt

(April 10, 2008)  What happens after you’re dead? The exact nature of the afterlife (if there is one) is debatable and far from certain. What is certain is that we leave behind a body, a mass of flesh and bone that someone has to deal with.

Have you made plans for the disposition of your remains? Chances are you have not. People don’t like to talk about death, particularly their own. Offering directions to family and friends regarding what to do with your corpse is not typically high on the to do list — it’s left until the end is near.

C.S. Ricks’ mausoleum at Myrtle Grove Cemetery in Eureka. Photo by Bob Doran.

GALLERY >

And what are your options? You’d think it’s a simple choice between burial and cremation — you just have the corpse picked up by the local undertakers and tell them which you want. But it’s a bit more complicated than that. Should you have the body embalmed? What sort of casket will you use, fancy or simple, wood or metal? Even if you choose cremation, where will your remains end up? Do you have a burial plot, or will your ashes be cast to the wind, or left on a shelf somewhere? And how much is all of this going to cost?

According to a price survey by the National Funeral Directors Association, the average funeral cost in the U.S. (circa 2004) is more than $6,500, and that does not include cemetery expenses.

Are there other options? There are. Some of the alternatives being explored across the country include DIY home funerals and “green” burial in what are known as natural cemeteries. Locally those new (or sometimes old) options are explored by a group called the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Humboldt, along with that pesky question about the cost of deathcare.

The local FCA chapter descended from an earlier group called the Humboldt Funeral Society founded in the early ‘60s by Arcata lawyer John Stokes and his secretary Wilma Johnston. Similar organizations popped up across the country at that time, at least in part in response to the 1963 book The American Way of Death, by self-described muckraker Jessica Mitford.

Mitford’s exposé of the funeral industry laid out a simple truth: There are people working in mortuaries and funeral homes who are more than willing to take advantage of grieving families and soak them for as much as they can. Funeral societies were formed as a line of defense, to inform the public and often to negotiate on behalf of members.

On a sunny Sundayat the end of March, members of the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Humboldt gathered in a house overlooking Humboldt Bay to prepare to mail out the spring edition of the organization’s newsletter, something they call One Foot In…

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 NEXT PAGE >SHARE