Joseph Medcalf Open Day

Click to enlarge.

    To celebrate 'Dying to Know Day' Joseph Medcalf will be having an open day on Saturday the 9th at 2pm.  This is a rare chance to see and explore the inside of a funeral home, so I think it's well worth going and will certainly be there.

    According to the banner the event will include a tour of the funeral home, discussions about planning funerals, and more.


Location:   447 Burwood Rd, Belmore NSW (google map).

Time:   2:00pm, 9th of August.


To RSVP and for additional information you can email director@josephmedcalf.com.au or call 0433 181 091.

Joseph Medcalf Site: http://josephmedcalf.com.au

Joseph Medcalf Contact Page & Address (with google maps) : http://josephmedcalf.com.au/contact-us

Groundswell Project (with other similar events): http://www.thegroundswellproject.com/find-an-event

~~

Recommended Funeral Homes

    Several people have asked me what funeral homes I would recommend and why. I find this a tough question to answer as personally I feel it is hard to find a 'bad' funeral home because the vast majority are to a respectable standard.

The Walker Group

    The Walker Group, as I call them, is a growing funeral company in Sydney, and it's about time I discussed them. So this is a post describing what I know of this growing company.

ESMP Open Day

    I finally have time to write for the blog again, so I'll start with the 2013 Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park (ESMP) open day.  As expected it was a great day and included a variety of things from free food to an Aboriginal dance, needless to say I had a blast.

Event - ESMP Open Day

    The Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park (ESMP) open day will be held on the 26th of October. The 2012 open day was great fun, so I'm looking forward to it this year.

When  -  26th October (Saturday), 11am to 2pm.
Where  -  Military Rd, Matraville. 
Cost  -  Free.

    This is the last open day for the industry that I know of, and It's a fun day. Based on last year there should be free sausages, tours (of the funeral home, crematorium, cemetery), face painting, cars and hearses on display, stalls, and more! It's well worth a say out, I'll certainly be there and look forward to seeing some of you.


    My post about the ESMP 2012 open day.

    A post about ESMP including contact information & how to get there - although this needs updating.

    My guide to some interesting places in ESMP.

~

The Process - On the funeral

    Recently I came across an old post which I never published, simply forgot about it. It might not be completely accurate, or even up to date. This was written just over a year ago and forgotten about.

    Not long ago I wrote about how the body makes it from the site of death to the hearse for the funeral.  This is my follow up post on what happens once the coffin in loaded into the hearse.  Once again I focus on the coffin and its immediate preparations.  There is a lot of paperwork and other things going on at the same time which I do not cover.  Yet this time I talk more about the staff and how they go about the job.  This is so you can understand the feel of it better.

    Anyway, here's what happens after the coffin is loaded into the hearse.

Woronora Open Day 2013

    The Woronora open day was one of the best I have attended so far, what made it stand out was the focusing and mentality behind the open day.  It was held on the 13th of April (Saturday) 2013, and while the day was meant to go from 10am to 3pm I was there from 9:30am to 3:45pm.

The New ESMP Site

    Estern Suburbs Memorial Park Cemetery & Crematorium (ESMP) launched their new site a white ago.  At the time I was both busy and waiting to see what other changes might be made.  But ait is now about time I discussed the new site.  As it is well worth discussing and a great step in the right direction.

Funeral Company Relationships

    There is a surprisingly complex web of relationships between groups operating in the funeral industry.  Below I finally tackle this topic and attempt to explain how the various companies interact with each other.

Inside the funeral home: Walter Carter Funerals

    A while ago I spent a couple of hours with the CEO of Walter Carter Funerals.  It wasn't a study so much as a meeting.  But I learnt a lot and had a great time.  The CEO is incredibly knowledgeable  approachable and open.  No question or topic was inappropriate.

Working Funerals - Neighbour calls police about body at funeral home

    Very recently I had a talk with the people at Divinity Funerals.  I was told a funny story about how one neighbour is reluctant to have a funeral home so close.

    One night there was a viewing in the funeral home chapel, nothing new.  After the viewing they were loading the coffin into the car to take back to the mortuary.  When suddenly "everything was blue and red" as police swamped them.

    It turned out the neighbour had seen them loading the coffin into the car, and called the police.  Saying how the neighbour was putting a dead body in a van.  Forgetting to mention that it was a funeral home and a coffin.  Naturally the police were not too impressed and quite apologetic to the funeral staff.  Saying how they would make a note in the system about that number, and they had told off the neighbour.

    It goes to show how reluctant some are to have a funeral home close to them.  Getting approval to build a new funeral home is incredibly difficult from councils and residents.

    My research is finding a main way people chose the funeral home is by how close it is to them.  When a death occurs people want the funeral place to be nearby, many say how this is convenient and nice.  Which is also evident by the way InvoCare spends so much to rent so many offices around Sydney.  Clearly they think it is financially worth it.

    Yet when there is no personal death most do not want the funeral home as a neighbour.  Other than when needed the funeral home should be distant to them, over there and not over here.  This is known as Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) to some.  How we want something close to us when we need it but distant when we don't.

    The funeral home is unfortunately stuck in this paradox.  The company needs to be close to residents and commercial areas for customers as this is a major decider for many customers.  But then the same people do not want the funeral home close when they are no longer customers.  Keeping the funeral home near but at arm's length.

    An unfortunate down side to this is it encourages superficial shop fronts and briefcase funeral directors.  The mortuary, where the dead are dealt with, are removed, confined to industrial areas.

An~~

WNBull History

    This year WNBull turned 120 years old, a rather significant event for the company.  But WNBull is not very effective at describing itself to others.

    Seeing as I have been looking into the history of the funeral industry I thought it only appropriate to write a post with everything I know about Bulls rich history.

NSW funeral home search terms

    This is just a short breakdown of search terms used to find funeral homes in NSW through google.  I looked at a few terms people use to find funeral homes.  As part of exploring how people think of the funeral industry.

    Originally this was just background research and possible evidence.  But I thought it interesting enough to get its own post.

ESMP open day

    Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park had its open day this weekend.  It was a great day, so much to do and a wonderful atmosphere.  But what made it special was how open and relaxed the staff and company was.

    This was the last public social event for the funeral industry (that I know of).  And it was a great day, a perfect way to end the social calendar for the industry.

ESMP Cemetery & Crematorium Open Day

    Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park (also known as Botany Cemetery to some) will have an open day on  Saturday the 27th of October.  It looks like a fun day, with a tour of the crematorium and funeral home, face painting, displays, a sausage sizzle and much more.

When: 27/10/12 - 11:00am to 02:00pm.
Where: Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park Cemetery & Crematorium.
Cost: Free.

More information

Event Calendar

My guide about the cemetery and crematorium, including how to get there, maps, where to park and more.

An~~

Inside the funeral home: Lady Anne Funerals

    Recently I spent a day at Lady Anne Funerals in West Ryde, behind the scenes observing how they operate.  I first met a few Lady Anne staff at the Rookwood open day.  They were quite open to the idea of me going to observe and study their operations.  Rare considering the paranoia and secrecy in most of the funeral industry.

    This is about my day inside Lady Anne Funerals, what I saw and what it was like.  I had a great day and learnt a lot.  Lady Anne Funerals is a wonderful company with great staff.

Inside a Mortuary - Again

    I posted these photos and videos of various funeral home mortuaries in mid September.  In under a month that post has been viewed over 100 times, making it the second most popular post on this blog.

    So here's a few more pictures of inside a funeral home mortuary.  Enjoy!

Rookwood open day

    The Rookwood open day was a blast.  There was so much to see and do, even though I was there almost 5 hours I only saw a few of the things on offer.  Everyone was nice and happy and the atmosphere was wonderful.

    Overall this was a great day, easily able to compete with any festival or open day in Sydney.  You can read my detailed explination of the day below.

Rookwood open day Photos

    The open day was amazingly great!  I had a lot of fun and learnt so much.  Everyone was friendly and up for a chat.  There was so much to see and do, I was there from 9:15am to 2:30pm and I didn't get to do everything.




    I'll write a popper post about the day later, when I have time.  But for now enjoy a selection of the 298 pictures I took.

The Process - From death to funeral

    This is the process of how a body gets from the place of death to the funeral.  Not many people think about this, and even fewer know about it.  Here it is, step by step in a simple guide from when the person dies to when the coffin is sent on the funeral.