Tag Archives: coffin

Don’t want to go into the funeral home – try drive-thru viewing

It is not a new concept but now Ryan Bernard of Memphis is joining the drive-thru visitation service trend.

When Bernard bought an old bank building in Memphis to use for a funeral home, he found a unique use for the drive-thru window. Guests can view the deceased’s body through a bullet-proof window. If they don’t want to fuss with parking and getting out of the car or are afraid of funeral homes, guests can just drive up and pay their respects. They can sign an iPad guest book and spend approximately 3 minutes alone with the body.

The drive-thru concept is a free add-on offered to people when they are planning a funeral.

According to Bernard, he’s gotten a mostly positive reaction although some people have said they find it disrespectful.

His facility, R. Bernard Funeral Services, has already added live streaming of funerals and will continue to add innovative concepts. He said, “The funeral industry is always changing every year. I keep the old traditional funeral stuff and try to add new stuff to it,” Bernard said. “I am 41 years old. I am not out just to market to the grandmas and grandpas, I am trying to get the millennials and the Baby Boomers too.”

Whether you want to add non-traditional elements to a funeral or just plan an “old fashioned” one, for more information go to www.diesmart.com.

Can you listen to music after you’re dead?

If a deceased loved one was a music lover and you’d like to treat that person to an eternity of music (and we don’t mean from heavenly harps), now you supposedly can.

A company in Sweden, Pause, just released a new product called the CataCoffin and its CataCombo Sound System. It’s a $30,000 coffin that delivers “godlike comfort and heavenly sound”. The luxurious coffin includes “a revolutionary customized sound system for audiophiles on the other side”. You can customize playlists and let the music play for as long as you want.

How do you do this? A special tombstone above ground displays the playlists that can be customized by the deceased’s loved ones.

The commercial promoting the CataCoffin is a little eerie but you can judge for yourself. It will give you a good idea about the quality of the coffin and how the sound system works.

Pause company CEO, Fredrik Hjelmquist, owns the first manufactured model and says customers should feel free to add track to his playlist “Pause-4-ever”. If you’re in Stockholm, he invites you to head down to the Pause store at Norrlandsgatan 14 to see it for yourself.

Is this a real product? Supposedly it is.

For more information about coffins and other topics related to planning a funeral, go to www.diesmart.com.

Maybe you can’t buy a casket online – in Georgia!

Costco has been selling caskets over the internet for the last five years. But, because of regulations that make a sale in that state unattractive, they are not selling them in Georgia.

As soon as Walmart recently announced that they are also going to be selling caskets online, they received a letter from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. That letter told them that they are required to register with the state if they want to sell funeral merchandise and, until that process has been completed, they cannot sell caskets in Georgia.

So if you live in Georgia and want to buy a casket, at least for now you’ll have to do it the old fashioned way – buy it from a casket store or a funeral parlor. You won’t be able to buy it from Costco or Walmart online.