The Jig Is Up (The following is an excerpt from the casket chapter in “Caring for the Dead: Your Final Act of Love,” available through the FCA bookstore.) There is no amount of embalming or any particular casket that will preserve a body in a life-like condition forever. Read more

Pittsburgh Catholic Funerals Pennsylvania law states:   Funeral Director Law, PS 63: 479.2 . . . The term “funeral director” shall also mean a person who makes arrangements for funeral service and who sells funeral merchandise to the public incidental to such service or who makes financial arrangements for the rendering of such services and the sale of such merchandise. Read more

Rock of Ages Now that it is a publicly-traded company, it would seem that the Rock of Ages monument folks have abandoned their Vermont heritage and are opting for the ways of the money-hungry city-slickers. Their advice to the dealers they sell to: Set your prices at four times the cost. Read more

Swapping Cemetery Lots   Consumers with firm resolve can sometimes prevail. Here’s how one woman managed to get her mother’s grave lots swapped from one corporation cemetery to one in another town.  — FCA   Here is my letter which got such excellent results. Read more

Callous Indifference or Crafty Calculating?
Stewart’s wait-them-out-and-wear-them-out tactics   July 26, 1998 Mr. Peter Savaadra
Simplicity Plan
PO Box 141418
Miami, FL 33114-1418 Dear Mr. Savaadra, I apologize for not sending this letter sooner. Read more

Preneed Shenanigans by SCI May 1, 1998 Ms. Charlotte Flynn, Convener
Gray Panthers of Austin
3710 Cedar St., #223
Austin, TX 78705 Ms. Flynn, My family recently experienced a situation that I feel is morally and ethically wrong and could be encountered by every person and family in our state and nation. Read more

Catholics Targeted Is Something Wrong with this Picture? In the spring of ’97, The Pilot—a newspaper put out by the Boston Archdiocese—ran an ad for preneed funeral insurance for the Forethought Company, heavily promoted by Loewen-owned funeral homes. Read more