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.

Forest Lawn Open Day

    Apparently Forest Lawn Memorial Park will be having an open day this Saturday (26th of Oct), it's a shame this is the same day as the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park open day and I won't be able to go.

    I'd recommend going to the Forest Lawn open day as InvoCare, who manage Forest Lawn, organise decent events. The Pinegrove Memorial Park open evening was fun and informative so I expect the Forest Lawn one would be fun to.

    InvoCare are doing a good job of slowly opening their side of the funeral industry to the general public, they tend to be honest with any questions asked. Making the Forest Lawn open day a great chance to get a get some decent information and answer any questions.

    Unfortunately I won't be going due to the ESMP open day and being busy with thesis work. So if anyone goes let me know how it was!

More information: Forest Lawn Memorial Park open day link.

~~

LifeArt - Making Coffins

    This is an interesting video about how LifeArt make their cardboard coffins. Unfortunately it's only 240p and a low quality video. But it is definitely worth a watch, especially for those not familiar with LifeArt.

LifeArt Clean Coffin Technology

     You can read more about LifeArt coffins via their website. Essentially they're cardboard coffins, which are environmentally friendly. Personally I like them for their customisation abilities and how light and practical they are. You can get any image or design printed on them, or simply get a plain one and decorate it in person as I have seen some people do.

    LifeArt recently released an online design tool, allowing people to design coffins themselves. It's a fun tool to play with, LifeArt Online Design.

    However, a huge drawback is that they are not available directly to the public. To me this is a bit of a shame as LifeArt would make a wonderful art medium. I've seen families paint, write poems, and stick collages on the coffins. Opening this up to a wider community could be good.

    My personal belief is that LifeArt could be a great product and used in a great way, but often gets dismissed or ignored too soon. The environmental benefits, the costs, and the quality are not as important as the customisation. The very option and notion of being able to completely customise a coffin like this is great and should be given more credit. So I think it's wonderful to see LifeArt running with this through things like the online design tool. The ability to interact so directly with the coffin, and to change it so dramatically, is a very powerful thing. I've had the pleasure of seeing some amazing things mourners have done with LifeArt coffins.

~~

Pinegrove Open Night

    The Pinegrove Cemetery & Crematorium was a simple but fun night.  It was strange to have the open night at 6pm on a Tuesday, but it worked well. I enjoyed the night quite a lot and will definitely be at the next one.  An event well worth going to.

Event - Pinegrove Open Night reminder

    Pinegrove Memorial Park will be having an open evening at the end of this month.  Pinegrove is owned and operated by InvoCare, and in my experience they know how to hold a decent event.  So in theory it should be quite fun.

- When: 30th April (Tuesday) - 6pm
- Where: Kington St, Minchenbury.

Pinegrove events webpage:
http://www.pinegrovecrem.com.au/driver.asp?page=/our+services/our+events

Pinegrove Google Page (with contact info and address):
https://plus.google.com/115487533186623482454/about?gl=au&hl=en

    Hopefully I'll see some of you there!  Look for the person taking photos and chatting with staff to find me.

An~~

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.

Event - Pinegrove Open Evening

     Pinegrove Memorial Park will be having an open evening of the crematorium this month, which could be good fun as my experience with InvoCare event have always been very good so far.  As uni is getting busy I will be making this the blog event for the month, roll a few things into one.

    There will be more details closer to the time as I know them.  If you follow the blog facebook page you can keep up to date with events.  Greg Bisset tends to also post things about various InvoCare events and functions for those interested.

- When: 30th April (Tuesday) - 6pm
- Cost: Free (most likely).
- Where: Kington St, Minchenbury.

Pinegrove events webpage:
http://www.pinegrovecrem.com.au/driver.asp?page=/our+services/our+events

Pinegrove Google Page (with contact info and address):
https://plus.google.com/115487533186623482454/about?gl=au&hl=en

An~

The Hearse - Telling them apart

    Those outside the funeral industry (as in those who have never worked for a funeral company) cannot tell hearse's apart.  Even a few within the funeral industry can have trouble identifying different hearses.

    So here is a post on how to identify a hearse.  In this post I look closely at each of the main tell-tale features of various hearses.  From the style of the roof to the wing doors.  After reading this post anyone could easily identify a hearse!

Modern Funerals TV Segment

    Channel 10's 'The Project' had a segment on the modern funeral, on the 22nd of February 2013.  How funerals in the "last five years" are moving to a more personal service as the funeral service and the funeral industry modernises.

Interacting with InvoCare

    I would like to announce that InvoCare is willing to support this blog and will seek to support the honours research.  Which is a seriously big advantage for me!  In light of this I thought it appropriate to write about my interaction with InvoCare up to this point.  As it has significantly influenced how I see InvoCare.

    Hopefully this post will help others understand my perception of InvoCare!

Forest Lawn Cremating Drugs Investigation

    Recently I heard a rumour that Forest Lawn Crematorium had been used to destroy (via cremation) drugs by police.  Below I outline why I think this otherwise minor story is getting traction.

The InvoCare Investigators

    Quite a while ago I was at a funeral and noticed someone rather odd.  Someone I believe to be an 'InvoCare investigator'.

Children, Funerals & Death

    Children and funerals are a touchy and controversial topic.  Many are hesitant, reluctant even, to combine the two.  Choosing to keep children as far from funerals and death as possible.

    However some companies like Macquarie Park Crematorium and Eastern Suburbs funeral home are making a deliberate and conscious space for children.

The Funeral Industry & the Internet: step forward or be left behind

    Overall the funeral industry has been quite late to the internet.  Even now the industry is still not truly active or taking advantage of the online opportunities.

    In this post I explain how the industry is not very internet active and why this is actually a big issue for the industry.  I also discuss why the industry is so hesitant of the internet, even at their own loss.

InvoCare - A description and discussion

    InvoCare is without doubt the largest funeral company in Australia.  As such everyone knows of InvoCare, and talks of them quite regularly.  I have found it is almost impossible to talk for any length about the funeral industry without mentioning InvoCare.

    Despite this not everyone knows much about the company.  In fact many know quite little, even some of InvoCare's own employees.  So I decided to answer a few questions and misconceptions at once in one post.  Here I discuss the company and summarise everything I know and think of InvoCare.

Guest Post - Cemetery & Crematorium Price Guide

    These are some cemetery and crematorium price guides.  They were sent to me anonymously from someone in the funeral industry.  I don't know if they are accurate, or even how old they are.  But they are interesting.

A Personal Death - Another funeral

Front of the order of service.

    With my grandmothers funeral only a few months after my grandfathers we simply stuck with the same funeral home.  It was familiar and convenient and everyone was happy enough with the job they did last time.  The last funeral was not perfect, but not that bad really and the staff were nice.

    This is my experience and opinions of my grandmothers funeral.  It was an 'interesting' event.

Inside Look: Castlebrook Memorial Park

    CastlebrookMemorial Park is located in Western Sydney.  It is a relatively new place and there is actually little information about it.  Other than my personal experiences and opinions (which I describe below) it is unknown and un-described.

    Castlebrook  is InvoCare owned and operated.

InvoCare

    Not too long ago I wrote an article 'The InvoCare Share' about how much of the industry InvoCare really owns.  After much research, questionable numbers and a bit of guessing and discussing it with others I came to the conclusion that InvoCare does about 25% of all national funerals.  Not the giants people think them to be.  However InvoCare does about 50,000 SpY (services/funerals per year) while the next biggest company does about 6,000 SpY.  Thus while InvoCare does not own as much of the industry as people think they are by far the biggest single company.

    This then lead to a few questions from people about InvoCare, how good they are, how they treat bodies and funerals as commercial objects and so on.  So I decided to write a little post on what I think of InvoCare.

The InvoCare Share - how much of the industry does InvoCare really own?

    A few days ago I was at a small gathering of leuters.  When talking to one lecturer about InvoCare and how they had a strong hold on the funeral industry she asked me about numbers.  About proof.  Of which I have little to none.  It was here that I realised all the numbers I have are based solely on what others think and believe, not on actual research or facts.  Thus I did some research into how much InvoCare actually owns.  What i found was rather surprising.