Crooked, no-good S.O.B.s

An old farmer-friend of mine passed away Monday.
An old, penniless, hickory-spined individual who
farmed with horses for 76 years. Oldest sibling in
a family of 11 children. Cut out of the family
fortune by step-mother and kids, he lived in a
shack with his only full brother. During the last
four years, all of the money he made went to
paying for funeral arrangements, by selling hay
and what remained of the farm equipment that
wasn't pilfered by others. Now that the funeral
home is paid off and it's time to collect the
services, they say, "Sorry, no viewing unless you
pay another $3800" None of us has that kind of
money, none of the step-siblings will help, so...
no viewing. They deliberately kept quiet about
that while drawing up the payment arrangements.
The client is dead, so he can't argue... This may
seem a little weird, but I'm actually happy for
him. Here's a guy who's been kicked in the head by
family members since his mother died in 1933.
Always ready to help someone else, rarely got
paid, and... he loved to talk about horses. No
longer does he have to take crap from his family,
sit in that lonely old house with no horses
around, living off an oxygen bottle. See you soon,
Clarence.

May he rest in peace.

Family can be hard.

We have to attend a relatives on my wife's side funeral today. The wife's 2nd cousin can be a 4 star *****. She's really taking this hard, her mother, who she had not spoken to in 2 years because of a tiff over money.....wasn't the girl was the mother who got mad and started the fight.

May your friend rest in piece.

Rick

That sounds like a very sad story.

I can only imagine that he was happier than the family members who were the no-goods. This is probably why they treated him like they did.

"He who works the soil is closer to God", he probably knew this all along.

The whole truth is those who act no-good get no where by doing so!

I am sorry the hear about your friend!!! Sometimes family can be worse than any enemy.

I know we more than likely would not get it done in time but I would gladly send a Benjamin to help fund the funeral expense. It would only take 37 more guys.

Rest in Piece. Sounds like they will fight over anything he had left.Hope he left what they deserve nothing.

Sorry about the outcome Fritz.

For me, cremation is the answer. Bring me home in a coffee can and pour me out in the horse lot (in Clarence's case).

All that money poured in a hole in the ground.

It's a racket. . .

Skinflint Paul

Amazing what greed can do. Going through that with my sister. Mom died Christmas eve. Been a month now of hearing her cry and whine about.What she is not going to get. Gonna get cut out of her part of the will. How poor she grew up. We all grew up the same.Tenet farmers.

Mom lived a simple life. Didn't have much didn't want much. Maybe her and Clarence can meet and have a glass of tea together. At least they are in a better place.

Fritz,I am a pastor of a small church,and Im not very fond of funeral homes,When we built the church we designed it for having funerals and weddings.Weve done a lot of funerals and almost elimated the funeral home.A new funeral home cost several million dollars today and they charge accordingly.Its all about money today

jimmy

Sorry to here this about your friend. He sounds like a good hearted fellow that doesn't deserve to be treated this way in the end. I'm with JD Seller on sending a $100 for the cause if you can get it organized in time, just say the word.

Very Sad.
Those funeral homes are scammers.
When my wifes grandma died in 2001 The cost was $16,000 (I almost fell out of my chair)
A wood box, embalming, 2 days of viewing, nice words spoken by the funeral guy, and to pickup the body from the local hospital.....All for the $16,000 price tag. (An outrage to say the least)

I don't have much. On disability. But I could send some thing.Just let me know where.

I'd ask what kind of funeral home does that,but then I thought just a tiny little bit. The one right here in town. And he complains that nobody uses him anymore. There's a branch home of another outfit just north of town. We had Dad's there six years ago. The whole thing was only $4200. Very professional and caring.
For that matter,I and one of my brothers would have sworn that Dad had a prepaid plan at the one in town,but we couldn't find the paperwork and that jackazz swore by all that's Holy Dad didn't have one with him.
Deepest condolces.
But like you said,he's not taking abuse here on earth anymore. Some things are worse than death. There's such a thing as living too long.

i would give to the fund also if you get aranged. i just hate greedy people.

This could have all been avoided if he had pre-paid for his funeral. My mom did and we were grateful.

I have always said,and still believe, that ANYONE that takes advantage of the dead,or dying will have a special place in hell.
I've heard of some awaful dirty tricks done by the funeral people.

(quoted from post at 10:49:05 01/30/13) Sorry about the outcome Fritz.

For me, cremation is the answer. Bring me home in a coffee can and pour me out in the horse lot (in Clarence's case).

All that money poured in a hole in the ground.

It's a racket. . .

Skinflint Paul

Click to expand...

Paul I'm with you. Cremation for me also. My tombstone is a huge sand rock dug out of a frac pit from a sorry gas well on part of my families old farm.

It's sad that Fritz Maurer's friend won't receive a decent funeral after he pre-paid for it. I hate funeral homes as they remind me of Vultures.

George reread the post. he did pay up front. the Funeral Home wants more money.

Fritz,

It sounds like your assessment of the funeral home people is correct.

Obviously, it isn't going to happen, but I've told my wife what I want done with my old body when I'm done with it.

Way in the back of my farm I have a "bone-yard". It's where I've dragged some dead cows over the years for the buzzards and coyotes to clean up. I've told my wife that I want her to hook a chain to my leg and drag me back there when the time comes.

Actually, probably going to do the cremation thing.

Tom in TN

Fritz

It depends on what he originally paid for. If he paid for bare bones minimum then viewing body prep and calling hours would be extra. You are too hard on the funeral director having not seen the contract. Get the facts.

That can be a bitter pill to swallow. I am sure that you have checked the agreement that must have been signed when the man first started paying ahead like that. There may be something there that would help, I would hope so.

I have a funeral home related question? Who or what does a fancy silk lined,gold handled casket benefit? The deceased person,relatives or the funeral home? I've had to deal with several unprepared funerals with my surviving relatives and I think the funeral director tries to take advantage of the situation. When I'm dead I won't know if I'm in a casket or Folgers coffee can nor will I care.

Tom I've told Marilyn the same thing, only the preferred place is by the second bend in the creek. I told her to just call this certain neighbor to come with his backhoe, dig a trench and throw me in. She's not buying the idea. Jim

Had, the same thing happen with my Dad. Dad always told me when the time comes for him or Mom, just call XXXX all the arrangements have been made and paid for. Guess what when the time came we went to XXXX and no arrangements, no nothing. Could not find any supporting paper work etc. So had to pay. My Dad was a very honest man and a had made many deals just with a handshake. So when Mom's time came we used YYYY instead.

JimB

Fritz,
I'm very sorry to hear about your friend.

Was your friend a member of, or did he attend a church? The cost to have a visitation in a church is often quite affordable.

When my son passed away I was shocked at the funeral cost. The funeral gave us an itemized break down of the costs. Every aspect of it was more than I had expected but not really by much. A little here, a little there added up though. We had him cremated after his services so there was no casket purchase involved, but we had to rent one for the visitation (rent the casket, but the liner which they replace). When I sat back and looked at the costs, and thought about how difficult it would be to be in that business, I decided the costs were not out of line.
I wouldn't jump to conclusions about the funeral home. It very well could be your friend hadn't prepaid for visitation. There are some very good funeral homes and some that are very dishonest. They're are compensated well but their overhead is very high.

My sincerest condolences about your loss.
Pops

Fritz
May He rest in peace.
My Mom allways tought Us "You'll get Your
rewards in Heaven"

Check the contract and with a lawyer.
My sister in law just went through this
with Her Mothers funeral.
Funeral director thought She was dealing with a grieving family, Told them it would be another $3000.
They were sure that it was paid in full. They started checking and found that they had money comming back.
Funeral home even paid for the dinner after the funeral.
Don't let them get away with anything.

Steve A W

Funeral expense with viewing, service, etc can get expensive and some states have laws about what can and can"t be done with a body- the required embalming, burial in a vault at a state licensed, inspected and required bonded maintenance fund cemetary requirements sometimes can result in a expensive hole in the ground. Then there is S Carolina(?) outside of a incorporated city where you can bury deceased relative in family plot or a backyard or a front yard that is a litle ways from road right of way, no embalming required and just a simple marker so county knows where body is- and a filed property map at coroners office meets that requirement- was a little story about a month back from there about guy burying wife in "town" that was outside of "incorporated city" limits- city objected, city boundaries ended across the street, sherrif and coroner told guy how far back from edge of road and how to describe grave location as referred to by right of way and boundary markers if he didn"t have a grave marker stone, sherrif asked for funeral time for traffic control so he could set up a traffic cone and sign. Front yard now has a large flower pot at head of grave. Green burials being advertised here- cardboard box or shroud option, no embalming, plant a tree for marker. State of Wisconsin will do a cremation for indingents/poor- family I know had to let that happen to old uncle couple years back, state practice is bodies stay in cooler until they get 5 or 6 thenit is a mass burning, ash is divided but it will be a 'mixed' share of residues- at least deceased will have some company remains. The old friends cremation November was about $5000.00 with service, memorial speech"s, viewing of a picture on top of ash box. Recently deceased in December brother in law got burned, the ash urn is on top shelf of bedroom closet. Sister says they stay ther awhile and she"s arranged for her cremation, may have double ash box- then we"ll have to figure out what to do maybe. I made my own coffin just in case- it"s in brother"s garage and I"ve told sister she can use it for viewing, etc if I"ve not had to use it--otherwise Iowa laws about viewing require embalming even if cremated afterwards and a rental of coffin can cost $500.00. Makes the nnalert custom of shroud and discrete burial seem sensible. Maybe Tibetan traditional lay out on glacier and slit belly for vultures a Green practice? Set body in tree or platform and then bury bones the next year?-arrange with friendly Lakota tribal service? A little Teasing/Humor Alert! RN

For both of my parents, by their choice, visitation was in in the sanctuary before the funeral. Burial at the cemetery next door, followed by a dinner done by the ladies of the church.

I had a brother in law working at Forethought (Batesville Casket) and my brother works at Aurora Casket, funeral director went to the same church as one of my sisters, we got a very straight deal.

From the reports that I've heard, he isn't nearly as bad as the undertakers in AZ.

Our family has dealt with a funeral home like that also. BAD. We would like to help with a "Benjamin" also. Post a place to send... Harold

Never pre pay for a funeral.They can easily take your money and leave,change names or sell to someone else and your out your money.One near dayton ohio took money for funerals and burried dozens of people in a common grave.

I'm bad.

My mom pre-paid. Cost of funeral went up and the funeral home honored the deal, Cost us nothing. Funeral home said they lost about $4000.

A cemetary/ funeral parlor near me went bankrupt.
He had over 100 people who were prepaying and lost everything.The township took over the cemetary and now operates it.The same guy had three cemeteries that went under.