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you will find uncontrollable emotions and very very difficult for a
funeral director even to sit down and make the arrangements with the
family. Each question, you would create a flow of emotion. I
The funeral undertaking industry is developing an "anificia!" infrastructure filling in the
gaps left by the personal and social involvement in death:
GC: There's a lot of funeral homes that are now into counselling, grief
therapy and everything. I feel that it is inappropriate unless you have
specific training in their field; however, the funeral home industry is
pushing grief therapy--for their own reasons because it allows a follow
up with the family, which is imponant. There's a brochure on it, tape,
how 10 deal with the death of a child, produced by a casket
manufacturer. The industry is beginnning to change because there are
large multinational firms buying up smaller traditional funeral homes,
keeping the older on the payroll, maintaining everything as it is,
however it's controlled and marketed through the muhinational
cooperation. That hasn't reached Newfoundland yet, but it's on its
shores. They are heavy in the preplanning..
IP: What's the rationale of "preplanning"?
GC: You plan ahead with insurance, pension plans, wills; one of the most
difficult arrangements at death is the funeral arrangements which are
overlooked and that is the major rationale. Some people like to pay for
it, the elderly that are low income earners, because they're retired, feel
secure in having their funeral prepaid and prearranged, so there are
different rationales depending on age groups.2
IP: Preplanning, how has that caught on in Newfoundland?
RO: It's catching on, really catching on the last two or three years. You'll
find that mostly older people who have probably sold their homes or
went to a senior citizens' home or an apartment, they like 10 have aHthis
done so that their families, children, won't have any decisions to make.
A man and a wife who brought up two or three children, they've
probably left and moved to the mainland or anywhere, you know, God
knows they may be anywhere, and at the time of de.uh there may not be
anybody here to make all these decisions, so in many C,lses they have it
all done. Almost everyday we're prearranging funerals. As a matter in
fact, I had one this morning only before you came, and I have two more
after lunch; iI's almost every day. There's hardly a day passes when
you don't have at least one. They come in, they'll sit down, we'll put it
all on paper and then at the time of death their wishes are carried oul.
Eh, sometimes, the family will overrule some of their wishes, they can
do that, I believe legally, I'm not sure, but it'S hardly ever done, you
know, but a lot of people, they like to have it all done, so when
everything happens, you know...
IP: Do you have young people, people my age preplanning for themselves?
RB: Yes, sure, as a matter of fact, yes, and younger than that.
IP: What's their rationale for that?
1\1UNFLA 87.159/CI2031.
2\1UNFLA 87-t591CI2031.