Now after having served as an Alderman for the City of Launceston and in private enterprise, innovation remains and has always been a hallmark at every opportunity. Having a viable online manufacturing business, I’m aware of the necessity to promote sound and reliable service provision especially where there's a community benefit.
What I don’t believe in, or support, is enterprise where people are disadvantaged, especially when at the most vulnerable time of their lives. For this reason and this reason alone, I’m calling out the funeral industry as one such enterprise where, in general, it has overstepped the mark when
selling their product, providing funerals that most of us can ill-afford.
Over the years, having worked in a conjoin appointment with UTAS in human life and anatomy classes, I have been involved with deceased people both professionally and personally. I have witnessed the best and the worst of humanity and sat at the bedside of departing friends and relatives including my father as he took his last breath.
A couple of years ago, necessity inspired me to consider taking control of my deceased sister’s funeral from start to finish. My sister Beverly was a woman of simple means with a large extended family struggling to subsist financially and now encumbered with the minimum cost of a funeral that they collectively could ill-afford. $7,500 was the minimum price quoted, far in access of this family to accomodate. [LINK]
Having limited knowledge of the process of disposal of human remains proved to be a fast learning curve for me, which started with a visit to the Launceston City Council crematorium, where I was advised of the requirements under law to use their services. At this point in time, all I
knew was that my sister was in the care of a local funeral service provider, so was no longer being held at the hospital morgue.
Obviously as a soon to be DIY funeral provider, I discussed the procedure with the good people at Carr Villa and obtained the necessary paperwork indicating that I needed to acquire a death certification and a second doctor to sign off on identity and whether additional technology existed inside the deceased such as a pacemaker. Evidently pacemakers play havoc inside a cremator.
Next on the list was to advise the funeral home that I no longer required their service and arrange for collection of my sister at the earliest convenience. Googling a casket or coffin was interesting where I found a cardboard casket available costing $75. At the same time I came across a local coffin supplier who had a selection of imported coffins from Malaysia. After a visit to a private house in the suburbs where there was a garage full of coffins, I settled on a white number with brass handles and satin quilted lining, even on the inside of the lid.
Because it had a small imperfection and was marked down, I got it for a bargain basement price of $660 and arranged to collect it in a day or so. Unfortunately the following day I received a hurry up from the funeral home to collect my sister as they had limited cooling facilities and needed the space for other clients. Because of a timeline shift, it was now imperative that I collect my sister as soon as practicable.
An impromptu visit to the coffin supplier to purchase the coffin, revealed the blemish on the lid to be more profound than I first thought. While trying to decide on a replacement I was offered the damaged goods for $600 a saving of an extra $60. I figured that if push came to shove I could strategically place a wreath over the blemish thus rendering it invisible.
Fortunately if I laid the front seat down in my SUV I could fit the coffin in my car, so armed with my newly purchased box, I headed for the funeral home to collect my sister. If I had any doubts about the reasons for taking on this task, it soon evaporated after talking to the undertaker.
When asked why I wanted to do my own service provision, I informed her that my relatives couldn’t afford their budget priced funeral, her response being, that if they had known that the family couldn’t afford the cost, they would have reduced it to $3,500. I was outraged and steeled my resolve to press ahead.
What followed was an insult to injury! I was informed that the funeral home had started preparing my sister and I would need to reimburse them for their work so far which was in the main cosmetic. I gave them my details and told them to bill me. I loaded my sister into her new accomodation and together my sister and I headed to my son’s studio where I planned to do Bev’s make over and prepare her for the family. Just for the record, as stated earlier, I was attached to UTAS as a certified embalmer and prosector, and having worked on cadaveric material for sometime, death held no unknowns for me, I was comfortable in the presence of the deceased. I was able to remain emotionally detached, even when presented with the silent form of my late sister.
Being able to compartmentalise my feelings and return to the reality of the present, has proven to be an asset when confronting traumatic unpleasantness, although this trait does not apply to conflict resolution where I have a tendency to just walk away.
Being new to the funeral game, I accepted an offer of assistance from a friend who, as a nurse in a Thai hospital, had prepared the deceased as part of her nurse duties. Now living in Tasmania, she had heard of my intentions and kindly offered her service. Between us we dressed Bev and my Thai friend attended to makeup and hairstyle. Realising that rigger-mortis has advantages to changing features and expression that required adjusting, accompanied by being a taxidermist at the museum for 30 years proved to be a distinct advantage and allowed me to present my sister as if asleep.
Bev’s family doctor kindly did us a service by dropping in and signing the necessary paperwork to finalise the formalities for proceeding to cremation. As is custom in our family, an open casket has been traditional and with family on side we were prepared for the journey ahead. A slide show and printed handout was produced by family and friends having appropriate skill sets, thus delivering more savings.
The process proved successful and the funeral that followed was well choreographed and ran like clockwork. To cut a long story short, We took advantage of the then free availability of the Carr Villa crematorium chapel and held a secular celebration of life, as a tribute to my sister Bev. The total cost was around $1,700 including the refreshments or wake at a local Bowls Club and donations towards the helpers who gave their assistance and ensured the success of the send off.
LOOKING FORWARD: So the years passed and the niggle that cropped up from time to time with news of friends and family dropping off the twig, festered like a weeping sore that refused to heal. It was a constant that wouldn’t go away. The vulnerability of people while grieving for passed loved ones was a constant reminder that all was not as it should be in the world.
2019 having recently re-engaged with an old friend facing a terminal illness who I’ll call Rick (not his real name) once again the restlessness in my spirit overtook me. I realised that he was not one to go out traditionally and only wanted to keep things simple with no fuss. To this end he had put himself on the list to donate his mortal remains for dissection at UTAS, an act of kindness that I always thought admirable, apart from body organ donation for preference.
Also it allowed for a cost effective disposal of a deceased loved one without cheapening the process In the meantime, I suggested that we set up a video camera and allow for my friend to record his life story and leave a legacy for family and friends. This would be something, after he had shed his mortal coil, to remember him by and a farewell message to his loved ones.
Over the next month or so we record three hours of him sitting alone in front of the camera, including an old work mate on the last session where they reminisced about fun times in their work place many years prior.
Realising that his UTAS option was hit and miss, and depended on space and condition of the candidate, there needed to be a fallback position in case the offer of the donation was rescinded or failed for whatever reason. To this end I felt obliged to offer my friend and his wife my services to take effect should rejection push the choice.
A week before his departure in February 2020 we were advised that the candidate did not meet the criteria for the University on weight and condition. In truth I have seen more meat on the bones of Holocaust survivors than what I observed on Rick. The days went by and Rick’s remaining time was down to days and hours, and then on a Sunday morning at 7:30am I received news from the hospice that Rick had died.
Previously I had had a conversation with a lady of like mind living in the south of the state who kindly arranged for a flat pack cardboard casket to be delivered to a friend’s house ready for collection on the way to the hospice. It took four of us about 15 minutes to assemble and was secured by cable ties and ready to go.
Armed with the cardboard casket we arrived at the hospice at around 10:30 on Sunday morning, three hours later from when we received notification of Rick’s departure. Accompanied by a friend whose station wagon best resembled a hearse, we were directed into the room where Rick lay mouth open, and though dressed and in bed, remained uncovered with a large blow fly circling his head.
My immediate reaction was directed towards the nurse, stating that the fly was unwelcome on this occasion and perhaps fly spray would be appropriate. My advice went unheeded. We managed to transfer the deceased into his casket then proceed to my home at Underwood where we would prepare Rick for his appointment at the crematorium first thing Monday morning. My wife Sylvia and I dressed and closed the mouth of the deceased and using super glue, sealed it shut to avoid any contamination, not before attending to a fly strike resulting from the lone invader back at the hospice. Because cardboard caskets have a tendency to slump in the middle, we were required to insert a plank under the body to meet the requirements of the crematorium.
After completion, the casket was taken into our house where conditions were cooler. That night and well after dark, we transferred the casket to our car ready for departure in the morning. Unfortunately, because the family doctor was the provider of the death certificate, we learned on the way to the city that we needed an independent medical practitioner to verify the identity of the deceased and ensure that there was no pacemaker present. Rick’s widow was instrumental in securing a doctor who provided verification for a local funeral service, who was willing to provide us with the necessary verification for the cost of a consultation.
Our consulting practitioner operated out of a medical facility in Kings Meadows and made his examination out of the back of the station wagon and agreed that Rick was who we said he was and that there was no pacemaker, a necessary procedure before we could hand Rick over for cremation. We were booked in for a 2:00pm cremation but were still not in possession of the actual death certificate, only a life extinct form. The author of the death certification was in no hurry to comply, suggesting that he would look at it in his lunch hour, despite being told that we were booked in for 2:00pm and needed the paperwork prior to this time so as not to exceed the demands of the crematorium. Right on 2:00pm the doctor filled out the death certificate and finally faxed the document to the doctor at the Kings Meadows Medical Centre.
By the time we processed the paperwork at the crematorium it was 2:40pm. As there was to be no funeral service in accordance with Rick’s directive, a celebratory gathering of family and friends held a wake on the following Saturday night, after a ride of honour by his biker friends. It was a real celebration of life accompanied by drinks and refreshments all compliments of friends and family. I have to say that it was the best funeral I have ever attended in my 73 years.
In summing up, the total cost of hospice to Carr Villa, excluding the Kings Meadows doctor’s account was $700, less than 10% of the minimum cost of a funeral service provider. Brokendown, the casket was supplied at a cost of $200, the cremation cost has been reduced overall to $500 from $760 a few years ago, both my friendly assistant and my wife and I, donated our time. After my last assignment I was led to ponder the possibility of perhaps rolling out this service provision to others of like mind who lamented the cost of a funeral for departed loved ones, be it philosophically or economically driven.
I appreciate that the funeral industry is not in the business to not make a profit; however does it have to be overloaded at a time when people are most vulnerable? Probably one reason why the funeral industry wants to be a regulated industry, is to foil attempts of the likes of me for DIY funerals!
The more I thought about the process the more I was driven to expand my mindset to further savings. Given that I had only adjudicated cremations, what about burials? The cost of a plot is much more expensive, now over $3,000 and with more people considering natural burials, how could this be facilitated?
Being part owner of 1000 acres of land zoned forestry, 20 minutes out of Launceston, why not annex an acre and have it dedicated to natural burials? Now it’s down to investigating the viability and hopefully being able to facilitate funerals for the same cost as a cremation. Deceased individuals could be buried in shallow graves enclosed in a shroud and a tree planted over the grave as their monument.
A QR code would mark the grave and visitors could view an online celebration of the individual on their smart phone or view it on a dedicated website.
So what’s in it for me as a DIY funeral provider? ….Absolutely nothing!
- Feel good value? 100%.
I don’t have a hidden agenda and the more people engaging in home funerals where we look after our dead and dying, the better for all. By taking ownership of our loved ones we give the greatest gift and the satisfaction of total end of life stewardship with the added benefit of total closure on a
grand scale.
My opinion? DIY home funerals, can be a life changing experience and affordable into the bargain.
Footnote: Since the last funeral of my friend Rick, I have been advised that only prescribed service providers can use the facility at Carr Villa. This means I would have to set up my own funeral business and meet strict guidelines that for the most part seem to have no legislation to support them.
MY QUESTIONS:
Has the policy shifts set out in my contextual background information provided, and that is now been deemed enforceable as Council’s policy, been past by Council in open Council, or is it a managerial initiative or is it a requirement under State Government legislation, and if any one how so and why so?
- Furthermore, If the next of kin, or others, are deemed to be the appropriate agents for the respectful disposal of their love one's mortal remains under regulations defining public health and security protocols to do with the respectful disposal such remains, how might the kin's agents be seen to be contravening health, security, or any other protocol when offered by myself, or others like myself, offering such services if these protocols are provided to the public openly and transparently?
- Will Council please explain on the record what in fact inhibits Council in facilitating, supporting and sanctioning mortuary and funeral services offered by independent consultants such as those I offer, and are offered as a free service.
Good morning Mr Norton,
Thank you for your inquiry regarding the dignified disposal of deceased loved ones independently, without the involvement of commercial funeral service providers.
As you are aware, the management and disposal of human remains in Tasmania is governed by the Tasmanian Burial and Cremation Act 2019 (The Act) and the Burial and Cremation Regulations 2015. This legislation provides the framework for the establishment and operation of cemeteries and crematoria, regulates handling, storage, and transportation of human remains, and ensures public health and safety compliance.
The Director of Local Government, through the Office of Local Government within the Department of Premier and Cabinet, acts as the regulatory authority responsible for compliance monitoring, enforcement of The Act.
In relation to Carr Villa Memorial Park (Carr Villa) Crematorium accepting cremations from prescribed businesses (registered businesses), this is a State Legislation requirement, as part of the above legislative framework.
We do understand there is a growing wish for individuals to take stronger control over the end-of-life process for loved ones, instead of using the commercial models available.
Our team has recognised this, and I can confirm, this is an action of the Carr Villa Memorial Park Cemetery Management Plan. Over the next 12 months our team have committed to working with the Office of Local Government to explore ways to work directly with the community in the way you describe. While it would significantly shift the operating model of Carr Villa, we believe it is an option worth exploring for our community.
Please reach out to Business Leader, Eve Gibbons as I know she would welcome the opportunity to meet with you, as we continue to respond and evolve our services to meet the needs of our community.
Kind regards,
Ali
Ali Kemp
Executive Leader Connections and Liveability
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