Went To The Mortuary Today...

Above, John Carradine as the mortician in "The Shootist" (1976). His best line was, "The early worm gets the bird."

Went To The Mortuary Today...

Well, Amber and I went to the mortuary to make the arrangements for my mom this morning.

Our meeting was painless. Actually, the mortuary's chief of staff (a pretty young gal who bore no resemblance to John Carradine as a mortician in "The Shootist" with John Wayne) couldn't keep a straight face. She said she is supposed to have a serious demeanor, but Amber and I kept cracking her up. We were laughing about everything (Mom would have loved that, we had the same brand of humor). I have to see "Meet The Parents." There's a scene involving a spilled urn and a cat doing his business in it. She and Amber were roaring over that.

I forgot to tell her of the joke I pulled on the mortuary lady that handled my dad's funeral arrangements. A day or so after his funeral, we had to go to the mortuary to pick up the memorial book and other things and she asked if we liked their services. I said, "Yes, they were fine except for one thing." She looked at me puzzled and asked, "What was wrong?" I said, "Some family members wanted to see my dad for the last time and the casket was opened and there was a woman in it." Her jaw dropped!

Maybe later...

This was cheaper than I expected. I was expecting somewhere around $5,000 (yes, even for cremations). We don't have a funeral date yet as the doctor hasn't put down a cause of death for the death certificate yet. That's the hold-up. They hope to get this done by the end of today. Once that's done, we can get a funeral date. We are hoping for either Tuesday or Thursday of next week, possibly around 1:00. I'd rather it be Tuesday to get it all over with. We may have the service at the grave as it is already there and they'd have to open the grave for an urn-sized vault (gov't. regulations). The mortuary has to talk to Riverside National on that. So it may either take place at the grave or in one of service kiosks.

There will be no pre-cremation viewings. Mom would not want that and the family also preferred not to have one.

As soon as we have a date and time, I'll let everyone know here and by phone.