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JANUARY 2013
FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS
S ec t i on A
Triple H Company
P.O. Box 5790
Ventura, CA 93005-0790
(805) 650-6944 • (800) 252-3444
Fax (805) 650-6444
Triple H
Company
Cemetery, Crematory and Mausoleum Supply Since 1950
• Plastic Mausoleum
Vases & Holders.
• Less Expensive
Zinc Ring Available
• 8”, 5 1/2” or 4”
• Bronze, Gold or
Verde Green.
• Over 150 Varieties
& Options.
• Solid Jewelers Bronze
Mausoleum Vases & Holders
• Gold, Oxidized and Nickel Finishes.
• Over 400 Varieties and Options Available
Dozens of Options
Available
Sizes up to 260 cubic inches.
◆
Tongue & Groove
Connections
◆
Green Velour Lined
◆
Strongest Urn Vault
of its Kind
®
®
®
Peace White
3.5” x 6” x 9”
4.5” x 7” x 8.75”
ULTRA
Flip-Top
Plastic
Urn
“Bronze Color”
or Gray
U.S. Patent No.
D-319910
®
Vases
Empire
Design
Princess
Design
Sheet Bronze
Urns
5 Sizes
Dozens of
Styles
®
Infant & Child Plastic Urns
32, 78 & 125 Cubic Inches
Antique Gold
Original
9” x 9” x 14.5”
Oversized
9” x 13” x 14.5”
• Black,
Brown or
Light Gray
• Secure Locking Lid
• Bag and Tie Included
• 8.25”D x 6.5”W x 4.5”L
MAUSOLEUM VASES
•
MADE IN THE USA
2” Disc
Adheshive
Standard
Drill Design
Holder
Button with Bracket
Variety of Colors & Finishes
Cardboard mailers also available
Resists UV
Discoloration
Floral
Lawn Vases
By Kristan Dean
In 2000 Kristan Dean began working with her family to bring
Merry Christmas From Heaven
®
to all who need the gifts’ mes-
sage of Comfort, Love, and Faith. Today she is the Vice President
of Marketing and one of the primary members of her family’s
Bereavement Ministry.
Thanks, in great part, to the thousands of funeral directors and
retailers nationwide who make Merry Christmas From Heaven
®
a
part of their communities, countless numbers of families reach out
to their family every year. Their bereavement ministry helps families
realize that those in Heaven live forever in our hearts. Their love is
with us always.
Prior to Mooney TunCo, Inc. Kristan worked with companies nation-
wide helping them build revenues by creating greater sales opportuni-
ties through the use of sales intelligence and marketing alignment.
Happy New Year! Welcome to the time of year that lets
us make a fresh start, renew our promises, and grow. With
so many possibilities how do we choose what to work on?
Well this year I am hoping we can work together to ex-
pand our abilities to reach out, engage, and help the peo-
ple in our communities come together. And I’d like to start
with Valentine’s Day.
As different as this may sound: the person my thoughts
go to on Valentine’s Day isn’t my late husband, it is my late
grandfather, Pups: the one who sent all of my sisters and
me silly cards with a bit of love every February. He is the
one my heart reaches for when I think of Valentine’s Day.
This makes me wonder: how can we help people that
will miss getting that “silly” card this year? With this
thought in mind I went to the Internet to find out
what funeral directors are doing to help their communi-
ties bring a bit of Valentine’s joy to others. No surprise:
Google provides pages of listings that link to information
about hundreds if not thousands of funeral homes and
C. DeJohn, Jr
. Though Ross cautions that “Cards cannot
include glitter, food or candy,” he lets everyone know they
“can write a message to say ‘thank you,’ to tell troops about
themselves, and to wish troops a happy Valentine’s Day.”
Then, with the help of
Sun News,
Ross asks everyone to
drop off their cards at one of DeJohn’s three locations or to
call for more information.
Want to know more? The Veterans & Family Memori-
al Care website, www.veteransfuneralhomes.com, is just
one click away and their community service page can tell
you all about Operation Sweaters for Veterans, Christmas
Stockings for Soldiers and Operation Valentine.
I am not alone. Please make this the year you help your
community send a Valentine’s Day Card to someone
that needs the smile it can bring. I look forward to your
thoughts please email me at kristan@mooneytunco.com
or, if you prefer, give me a ring at 781-331-5308.
Let’s
Chat
cemeteries that reach out to bring others a smile and a bit of
love on Valentine’s Day.
Two postings that caught my eye are “Watson Funer-
al Home Collecting Valentines” from www.galesburg.com,
home of
The
Register-Mail
, posted January 23, 2012, and
“South Euclid Funeral Home Collecting Valentine’s Day
Cards for U.S. Troops” from www.cleveland.com, powered
by
Sun News
, on January 11, 2012. I learned about two fu-
neral homes that reach out to their communities to bring Val-
entine’s Day wishes to seniors and our troops.
According to
The Register-Mail
the
Watson-Thomas Fu-
neral Home
in Galesburg, IL, began the Hearts of Love Proj-
ect in January 2012 when funeral home owner and director
Mark Thomas
and his wife
Tricia
invited everyone in their
community to “…provide handmade Valentine’s Day cards
for delivery to area nursing homes and retirement complex-
es.” They let people know when and where they could drop
the cards off at the funeral home or the telephone number
to call so the staff could pick up the cards. Then, “On Valen-
tine’s Day: funeral home staff deliver the cards to area nursing
homes and retirement complexes.” Thanks to Mark, Tricia,
their staff, and the people of Galesburg, Galesburg nursing
home and retirement community residents received a Valen-
tine’s Day card last year.
Thanks to Sun News reporter
Jeff Piorkowski
I learned that
DeJohn Funeral Homes & Crematory
of South Euclid,
Willoughby Hills, and Chardon, OH “is one of nearly 1,000
Veterans & Family Memorial Care
providers nationwide
who sponsor the annual VFMC Operation Valentine Initia-
tive.” This is an initiative that “helps students and individuals
throughout the community write messages to the troops on
valentine cards, cut-out hearts, or whatever they like, and we
make sure that they are delivered to our brave men and wom-
en serving overseas,” according to company president
Ross
Memories of the Ambulance Service
By Todd Van Beck
Todd Van Beck
After I wrote my first article
on my memories of the fu-
neral home ambulance ser-
vice, my friends understood
what a ride it was working
on the funeral home ambu-
lance service.
I have funny stories about
ambulance calls, but recent-
ly I had an experience which
made me think back more
than 30 years ago to a partic-
ular call we had which wasn’t
funny in the least.
As I was driving back from lunch I pulled over for a fire
engine that was followed by an ambulance. Of course the
ambulance I saw today was much different than the ones I
worked on. I believe modern ambulances are literally emer-
gency rooms with wheels and thank God for that. Many lives
are saved because of the advancements that we almost take for
granted today.
Our vehicles and training back then cannot compare with
present day sophistication. We ran smack into terribly diffi-
cult life and death calls on a regular basis.
As I turned the corner going back to the funeral home
the fire engine and ambulance had all lanes going my way
blocked. A police officer was on scene and in a short time one
of the paramedics came out of the house, and I could see he
was carrying a baby in his arms. I felt the tremors of anxiety
that only someone having been on the ambulance, involved
with an injured and ill infant can feel.
My memory went back to 1969 in north Omaha. Every-
body who knew anything about ambulance work also knew
full well that just about the time you relaxed, or calls got bor-
ing, was just about the same time some call would come in
that would derail your comfort level and alter your psyche
forever. This happened to me on many memorable occasions,
here is one of them.
It was hot in Omaha, blistering hot! We dreaded daytime
calls because the air conditioner in the back simply couldn’t
keep up with the doors constantly being opened and closed.
Night calls were better, or so I thought.
This was not a police call which were almost always safer to
respond to, simply because if the police were on scene one of
them had a gun. But off we went to north Omaha, the neigh-
borhood was rough, many burned out buildings. It was about
8:30 p.m. as we pulled up in front of the address. Often times
in really tough calls people are screaming, running around go-
ing nuts, but not this time.
I was in the passenger seat of the ambulance, everything was
quiet. Out of the blue like a shot in the dark, a young wom-
an came flying out her front door, down the steps, and tossed
a small bundle into my arms. It all happened so fast that my
buddy who was driving had not even got out of the vehicle.
I looked down at the small bundle in my arms and pulled
the blanket back. It was a little baby not more than three
months old. The young woman started shrieking and yelling,
and then she started punching me in the arm. I froze.
As I took the infant into the back of the ambulance I could
tell that the baby wasn’t breathing. I was mortified. Advanced
first aid had covered CPR, but hell I never thought I would
run into this situation in a million years.
My buddy looked at me and did not say one word as he
jumped into the driver’s seat. I shut the back door and off we
went to the nearest Omaha hospital. We had purchased an
“Emerson Resuscitator” which was state of the art in emer-
gency breathing equipment in 1969. Looking back, however,
the bloody thing didn’t work. There was an adult, and a child
mask, but no infant mask, which wasn’t going to work when
you need a perfect seal.
The baby was not moving and I was trembling and thought
“Lord help me!” Finally I bit the bullet and started mouth to
mouth resuscitation and heart compressions. The driver was
so freaked out that he was going 70 MPH up a major avenue
in Omaha, which didn’t make it any easier for me being flung
around in the back of the old ambulance.
I don’t know why I did this- ignorance, desperation, stu-
pidity, I don’t know, but I decided to pick that infant up and
smack its bottom. I smacked the baby’s bottom and then
turned him around and started CPR. In a few seconds the
baby vomited, right in my mouth. I can’t say I handled that
very well because I also threw up (I was a true professional).
S
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FUNERAL HOME &
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