Posts Categorized: Marc’s Musings

So, why are funerals so expensive?  As I wrote last week, when arranging a funeral there are three main expenses; the first being that Funeral Homes have a Service Charge.  This Service Charge compensates for the use of the facilities, for the amount of staff time that may be required, for use of the vehicles… Read more »

First I want to remind you that the Blenheim Community Funeral Home will be placing a Christmas Memorial Tree at the Post Office in Blenheim again this year.  We will be placing an ornament on the tree for each family that we have served and for anyone else who would like an ornament placed on… Read more »

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day.  We must remember. If we do not, the sacrifice of those one hundred thousand Canadian lives will be meaningless. They died for us, for their homes and families and friends, for a collection of traditions they cherished and a future they believed in; they died for Canada. Wars touched the lives… Read more »

First let me announce that the Blenheim Community Funeral Home will be putting up a Christmas Memorial Tree in front of the post office again this year.  The Blenheim Community Funeral Home, as well as downtown merchants received many positive comments on the tree last year.  We have also had a number of inquires this… Read more »

Recently there was an online study of Canadians 35 years of age or older to measure their knowledge of and attitudes toward various aspects of a funeral as well as the funeral industry in general.  Here are a few excerpts from that study: –          Respondents generally have positive experiences with the funeral preparation process. –         … Read more »

I made reference once to a song by Air Supply that goes “In the eyes of a child there is joy, there is laughter.  There is hope, there is love, a chance to shape the future.  For the lessons in life there is no better teacher than to look in the eyes of a child”. … Read more »

When I look out my office window I see a number of trees, but two of them stand out over the rest.  Although they are different trees with different shapes, sizes and colours they complement each other.  Right now one is turning crimson, the other amber.  I watch them as they change colours in the… Read more »

This is everyone’s nightmare:  your spouse passes away; it’s Friday afternoon and you want to have the Funeral Service on the holiday Monday.  You don’t have cemetery lots but you know that you want to use one of the municipal cemeteries.  You need to purchase two graves so that you can be interred someday with… Read more »

Here are some basic facts about cemeteries:  the Municipality of Chatham Kent oversees a number of cemeteries including Evergreen Cemetery, Greenwood Cemetery, Maple Leaf Cemetery, Dresden Cemetery and Riverview Cemetery.  There are also fifty non-municipally operated cemeteries in Chatham-Kent.  The Cemeteries Act requires that any abandoned cemetery operation must be assumed by the municipal authority… Read more »

I want to touch on cemeteries for a couple of weeks… Last October all of the Funeral Homes in Chatham-Kent were invited to a meeting to discuss the 2010 Cemeteries Business Plan.  Part of the discussion at that meeting included the amount of overtime that was being paid out by the Municipality related to interments. … Read more »