| | |
---
'Mom's not going to look comfortable in that casket,'
'Mom's not going to look comfortable in that casket,' -- Posted by tigerlilly@privacy.net.org.com on 07-26-05 20:43
Obesity spurs sales of triple-wide coffins
Phoenix, AZ Oct 1, 2003
Perhaps nowhere is the issue of obesity in America more vividly illustrated than
at Goliath Casket of Lynn, Ind., specialty manufacturers of oversize coffins.
There one can see a triple-wide coffin - 44 inches across, compared with 24
inches for a standard model. With extra bracing, reinforced hinges and handles,
the triple-wide is designed to handle 700 pounds without losing what the
euphemism-happy funeral industry calls its "integrity."
When Keith and Julane Davis started Goliath Casket in the late 1980s, they sold
just one triple-wide, their largest model, each year. But times, along with
waistlines, have changed; the Davises now ship four or five triple-wide models a
month, and sales at the company have been increasing around 20 percent annually.
The Davises say they base their design specifications not on demographic studies
so much as on simple observations of the world around them.
"It's just going to local restaurants or walking in a normal Wal-Mart," Davis
said. "People are getting wider and they're getting thicker."
Like the airline industry, which was warned in May that passengers were heavier
than they used to be, and was asked to adjust weight estimates accordingly, the
funeral industry is retooling to make room for ever-larger Americans. The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 20 percent of American
adults are obese, up from 12.5 percent in 1991. Of those 70 and older - the
demographic that most interests the funeral industry - 17 percent are obese.
Despite the numbers, nearly every aspect of the funeral industry, from the size
of coffins to vaults, graves, hearses and even the standardized scoop on the
front-end loaders that cemeteries use for grave-digging (it is called a "grave
bucket") is based on outdated estimates about individual size.
"Many people in this country no longer fit in the standard-size casket," said
David A. Hazelett, the president of Astral Industries, a coffin builder in
Indiana. "The standard-size casket is meant to go in the standard-size vault,
and the standard-size vault is meant to go into the standard-size cemetery plot.
Everyone in the industry is aware of the problem."
The Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx recently increased its standard burial plot
size to four feet wide from three feet to accommodate wider burial vaults, and
the cemetery's newest mausoleum has four crypts designed especially to hold
oversize coffins. The Cremation Association of North America has begun providing
special training to its members in the handling of obese bodies.
And hearse manufacturers are pushing the limits of design to make their vehicles
ever wider and with bigger rear doors.
"If a funeral home calls looking to buy a hearse, that's one of the first things
they ask: 'How wide is it?' " said Terry Logan, the head of marketing at Federal
Coach in Fort. Smith, Ark., which sells 250 hearses a year. "That's the biggest
selling point in our industry."
Despite these changes, critics say the funeral industry has not done enough.
Families of obese decedents often have to wait several days for coffins, and the
cost of burial for the obese - which can include surcharges for embalming and
transportation - typically exceed standard burials by $800 to $3,000.
"It's not exactly rocket science that people have been getting larger; that's
been well known for 30 years," said Allen Steadham, the executive director of
the International Size-Acceptance Association, an advocacy group for the obese.
"People are living larger and they're dying larger, and industries have to adapt
to that situation."
George Lemke, the executive director of the Casket and Funeral Supply
Association, said that shape more than weight determined whether someone would
require an oversize coffin. But for people of average height, he said, those
above 300 pounds are likely candidates.
Many families are unaware their relatives will need a special coffin until a
funeral director measures the body and informs them. Some then face difficult
choices. Grace Moredock of Evanston, Ill., said that in 1999, when her mother
died weighing 340 pounds, the family could not afford an oversize coffin and
opted for cremation. "Because of our faith and our religious belief we would
have preferred to have buried her," she said. Moredock herself weighs 400 pounds
and she said the experience had affected her own funeral plans. "I'd prefer to
be buried," she said. "But I wouldn't say to my family, 'You have to bury me,'
because I wouldn't want them to be in a bind if they couldn't afford it."
For the severely obese, though, cremation may not be an option. Jack Springer,
the executive director of the Cremation Association of North America, said most
crematoria cannot handle bodies over 500 pounds.
One way that some companies have responded is by reducing the thickness of their
coffins' sides and the profiles of their handles, so they can hold larger bodies
but still fit in a standard vault.
Cemetery owners have less flexibility. Many cemeteries were plotted years ago,
and in the more crowded cemeteries, burial vaults are lined up wall to wall, not
unlike seats on an airliner, to maximize potential sales. And just as on a
plane, it is impossible to buy an extra half a seat.
"If we have someone who is oversized we may have to go larger than the actual
grave space permits," said William Wright, the vice president of Fairlawn
Cemetery in Hutchinson, Kan. "The family would have to own it."
The issue can be especially complicated when the deceased has prepurchased a
site, but cannot fit in it.
For funeral directors and grieving families, discussions over the deceased's
weight can be especially awkward.
Tim King, an undertaker at the Tufts-Schildmeyer Funeral Home in Goshen, Ohio,
said, "When you tell a family that just lost a loved one that their loved one is
too big for a casket, what they hear is you saying, 'Mom or Dad is fat,' " he
said.
King said the weight issue had given rise to a new euphemism. "We say, 'Mom's
not going to look comfortable in that casket,' " he said. "The family knows we
mean, 'Mom won't fit.' "
Families that have buried large relatives say it is important to compare funeral
homes, since some funeral directors with more experience burying the obese can
perform the task at a lower cost. Lois Kehrer, whose brother-in-law John Kehrer
of Loveland, Ohio, died last spring at 52 of heart failure at 696 pounds, said
the first undertaker the family spoke to said Kehrer would require a custom
casket, a custom burial vault and two funeral plots, which together cost
$20,000.
The Kehrers eventually found another funeral director who could fit Kehrer into
a ready-made coffin from Goliath, and a local cemetery agreed to fit the coffin
in a single plot, by positioning it slightly off center. The cost of the funeral
came to $7,921.74.
"People need to be aware there are other options," Kehrer said. "We kind of
lucked out."
Hazelett, the coffin maker from Indiana, said he expected the coffin industry to
continue courting the oversize market.
"The economic opportunity exists until the country changes," he said. "We're
just reacting to the supersizing of America."
http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/1001coffins01-ON.html
Related
Discussion:
Anyone out there with Ankylosing Spondilitis? (2 posts)
by Laura@Shawn - Last post on: 09-19-04 15:07
Anyone with this disease out there? I would be interested in hearing from
you, condition,medication etc.. I am 30 and I have had a hip replacement 2
years ago. I still have pain in the replaced hip. Is there hope out there
for pain free days??
I would love to get some feedback.
Thanks to... (Read More)
FREE monthly shyness / anxiety newsletter (1 posts)
by shane mckay - Last post on: 07-05-04 10:47
Sign up today for SHY United's free monthly email newsletter. To sign
up simply go to here:
http://www.shyunited.com/id49.html
Thanks
shane
... (Read More)
Holistic Drug and Alcohol Rehabiltation Program that Works! (1 posts)
by Jerry - Last post on: 06-12-04 08:34
Holistic drug and alcohol rehabilitation program designed by recovering addicts with over 17 years of experience. They specialize in chronic relapse and dual diagnosis. Call anytime 24/7 for a free consultation at 800-559-9503. You can find out more information at their websites located at:
http://... (Read More)
kidney transplants (1 posts)
by David Leonard - Last post on: 07-13-05 07:55
are there any kidney transplant patients who live in new york on this
newsgroup?
i'm conducting a series of brief interviews and would like to spend an
hour with you. i'm offering $100, in cash, as a thank-you for your time
and trouble.
this is not a clinical trial nor is it a sales pre... (Read More)
Top
Discussions From Our Archives
The Amazon Acai Berry Featured On The Oprah Show
Nutrition
Re: Jerwerly For Sale
Other
Discussion Categories
Diabetes Symptoms
Health Care Policy
Health Care Providers HMO
Oops!!! Unexpected Error While Reading the Feed
|
|
