To not understand the Hull funeral directors story?

[GameOfJones]

I've just seen an update to the news story and it sounds absolutely terrible.

35 bodies now identified at the funeral directors, some of whom have relatives that believed they had already been cremated and had been given their ashes. It sounds so upsetting.

What I can't understand is what on Earth was going on? I sort of get they may have been taking the money to cremate bodies then not actually doing so.....but then what the heck were they planning to do with the bodies they had in storage?

Even after cremation names are still kept with the ashes, and obviously they won't be handed over to just anyone, so unless crematorium staff were in on it I doubt this could have happened

As for folk supposing this firm were cheaper than others, having now seen the images of it I'd certainly hope so ...

Well obviously! I tried to keep an open mind but Brits on this thread are v narrow minded about the possibility that other cultures might do things differently from them (Britain = corpses MUST be lying down..)

Thanks for explaining nicely!

I'm not British

You would have thought there would be some kind of procedure in place that if a crematorium has refused to accept business from a particular funeral directors, for whatever reason, they would automatically be reported to the local authority to trigger a spot check on the premises.

How do they get the corpse to sit down?

No problem. It would be this kind of private ambulance. You probably have seen them around but thought they were work vans.

Just do it? I don't understand this question. Maybe they embalm it that way or maybe they just naturally position it in a chair.

But in my culture although we don't seat the corpse, we have the funeral the day/night of death itself, whereas I've heard the funeral is a while after death in the UK. So maybe from your perspective the body is too stiff by then (rigor mortis can take days)?

I think Victorian parents/people in the UK used to take portraits with seated corpses too, which was presumably soon/immediately after death.

Wow thanks! That's interesting

I thought they'd go a bit rigid and unpositionable so was just wondering ill go off and Google it.

Oh! I thought they were for the living!

My father was the same. All the weariness and look of ill health vanished and he seemed to be his old self.
It was a former pupil of mine who came to the house to discuss details of the funeral. When he left he turned to me and said,"I'll take good care of your father, Miss" and so he did. He restored Dad It was a comfort.

I'm from Liverpool snd have never experienced this EVER

Rigor Mortis wears off, it's only there for a certain time after death

I remember watching a programme on funerals on the tv, it was a few years ago, and the crem worker said they watched the initial stage of cremation through a little window, and that the coffin burnt away very quickly. So they’d see if there was more than one body and stop the process surely?

OMG I meant unfrozen bodies not uncooked - that sounds awful.

Me too - I’ve never been to a funeral without there being a wake. I’m in England.

Wasn't this one of those businesses that offers the option of cremating bodies privately so families can have a memorial service without the deceased person being present in a coffin? They seem to be advertising the practice everywhere- it cuts down on costs like expensive caskets, funeral cars, flowers etc. These business owners have clearly seen an opportunity to make money from the practice, and actually it does seem more open to abuse than the more traditional funeral rites.

I was brought up in the tropics and over there people had to be cremated quickly because of the heat. It was an open pyre and all the men would witness the cremation, women were not allowed to go. They didn't crush the bones left over so the remains were generally buried unlike India where they went into the ganges. It was illegal to put them into rivers or the sea because the island survived on tourism, but the entire family would gather to say farewell to the body before cremation even us children and nobody thought it was morbid at all.

That's due to the state the bodies were found in, a pp said up thread. The divers are more used to dealing with more decomposed states.

A few years' ago on MN there was an AMA by a crematorium worker - she sounded a lovely person and her thread was very informative and reassuring.

I wonder if she's still around and would like to comment.

It used to be common back in the day - maybe you're too young.

Wake seems to have taken on a different meaning in the UK in recent generations . Most people I know in the UK refer to the gathering after the funeral as the wake. In Ireland the wake is in the 24-48hrs before the funeral. Usually in the home of the deceased with an open coffin but sometimes in the funeral parlour.

Relatives and friends visit round the clock, pay their respects, pray, have refreshments and chat and exchange memories of the deceased. There is a get together after the funeral which can be anything from tea and sandwiches to a 3 course meal.