In article , Mary
Fisher wrote:
Many years ago I read The AmericanWay of Death. It sickened me and
I determined then not to have anything to do with the awful
business. The closer I get to death the more determined I am.

You can do it yourself if you really are determined to (q.v. the book
'Undertaken with love') but most of us would rather entrust what has
to be done to someone who has the knowledge and experience and who
will not take advantage of our situation. The same is true of people
engaging emergency plumbers, motorway breakdown services and many
other distress purchases of course.

I do think that there are more than a few firms in the funeral
business who do want to work in an ethical way. When my father died
the FD said [1988] "our cheapest funeral is £480: you can spend a lot
more than this if you wish but we will give you the same service
regardless of how much you spend" and there was no pressure
whatsoever to spend any more than we wanted (which was one up from
the cheapest). Ironically the firm concerned was taken over by SCI
and ended up on World in Action for following a somewhat different
approach. Since then there have been three series on TV following
life behind the scenes in different London undertakers and in each
case the people concerned have come across as just the sort one would
wish to deal with if the situation arose.

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk
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