Page A4
SEPTEMBER 2015
FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS
S ec t i on A
By Dan Rohling, CFSP
Government Now Requires
Background Checks On the Dead
The new claim form 40-
1330 for a standard govern-
ment headstone or marker
under the Veterans Dignified
Burial Act of 2012 requires
that whoever is applying for
a government headstone or
marker must confirm the fol-
lowing:
“…that the decedent has
never committed a seri-
ous crime, such as murder
or other offence, that could
have resulted in imprison-
ment for life, has never been
convicted of a serious crime,
and has never been convicted
of a sexual offence for which
he or she was sentenced to a
minimum of life imprison-
ment.”
Penalty: “The law provides
severe penalties, which in-
clude fine or imprisonment,
or both, for the willful sub-
mission of any statement or
evidence of a material fact,
knowing it to be false or for
the fraudulent acceptance of
any benefits to which you are
not entitled.”
What does this mean to
those of us setting down
and making funeral arrange-
ments with families of de-
ceased veterans? How does
one bring up the subject of
this new requirement? Do
we simply ignore this law to
save the family even more
anguish and hope for the
best?
Family members are gener-
ally hesitant to air any dirty
laundry pertaining to the de-
ceased. You, as a funeral di-
rector, are now in the unten-
able position having to wade
through what may be a very
difficult situation with those
that are, at best, unreceptive
to this new requirement.
One argument family
members might make is: My
(father, mother, sister, broth-
er, uncle) served their coun-
try honorably. What might
have happened after their
service to the country has no
bearing on their service to the
country. This “requirement”
coming after their service to
the country is without merit
and serves no useful purpose.
Few families want to be in a
funeral arrangement confer-
ence for any reason and now
with the help of the “Veter-
ans Dignified Burial Act of
2012” this new requirement
rears its ugly head.
After conferring with oth-
ers in funeral service the fol-
lowing questions have been
raised: Who was the author
of this requirement; did he/
she give it any thought; how
will this requirement be en-
forced; who will be examin-
ing the 40-1330 documents;
what purpose does this re-
quirement serve; and at
what expense to the taxpay-
er and all involved will what
amounts to “background
checks for the dead” ulti-
mately cost? Just one man’s
opinion…
I enjoy any feedback the
reader may have. I may be
reached at
Dan Rohling, CFSP is licensed
as a funeral director/embalm-
er in Idaho as well as an em-
balmer, certified crematory op-
erator and funeral director in
California. He has been a licens-
ee for over 30 years. In 1998 he
joined DMORT (Disaster Mortuary
Operational Response Team) as a
Mortuary Officer for the Federal
Government at time of disaster.
Deployments with DMORT in-
clude The World Trade Center,
hurricanes Ivan, Charlie and
Katrina. For the last 19 years
Rohling has worked nationally as
a consultant and expert witness
in the funeral, cemetery and cre-
matory industries.
By Nancy Weil
Time to Drain the Swamp
We’ve all heard the saying, “
It’s hard to drain the swamp
when we’re up to our butts in alligators.”
How many of us
spend our day “combatting the alligators” instead of re-
maining focused on the original task? Isn’t this a business
that brings an alligator our way every time the phone rings,
someone comes in our door or we look at our emails?
Well, this final installment of challenges and solutions is
going to re-focus you back to your original intention.What
that is for you may be different than your colleague, but
most of you will say it is about taking care of families in
need, taking care of your own family and, hopefully, taking
care of yourself. For many, that last one drops off of your
list as the “alligators” are taking too much of your time, at-
tention and energy leaving nothing left for you at the end
of the day.
So how can we stay in balance when the industry in
which we make our livelihood is rapidly moving towards
cremation
, low-cost cremation, direct cremation, no wake,
no funeral, no burial, no income for you? The first step
is to breathe. Take a deep breath and center yourself back
into this very moment. Look around and notice if your
lights are on (electrical bill paid), vehicles fueled (money to
pay for gasoline), phones working (paid the cell and land-
line bill), staff in sight (made payroll this month), etc. etc.
I had to do this exercise once when I worried over every
snowstorm cancelling my clients and not being able to pay
my bills. Enough nights of “weather worry” made me stop
and realize that, in fact, this had
never happened.
Not once,
never. I always made payroll, utilities were never turned off,
food was in my refrigerator, clothes on my body and in my
closet. The fear consumed me, but the reality was quite dif-
ferent. Since that moment, whenever a money worry crosses
my mind, I take a mental inventory of everything that is go-
ing right in my world financially. I set aside the worry and
instead start making plans. Take a look at your business logi-
cally, instead of emotionally. Analyze figures, decide what ad-
justments can be made and then take action on your ideas.
According to the CANA website, cremation began in 3,000
BC during the Stone Age. It isn’t going away, it isn’t a “fad”
and it is impacting your business. So stop worrying and start
planning.
Time is not the enemy…although it may feel like it.
Ev-
ery person, whether President, Pope or pauper gets the same
amount of time each day. How we use it creates the basis for
our life. There is a riddle that asks:
What is more precious than
gold, but cannot be bought, earned or saved?
Time, of course.
Yet even with the same amount of hours, how is it that we
end each day feeling like our “to do” list grew longer and sleep
becomes the enemy for our productivity. We want time to
finish our work, time to spend with our own family and time
to ourselves. No matter how we spend it, organizing it is the
key to solving this riddle. Whatever your organizational sys-
tem, you must know what you have to, when you have to
do it and what priority it is in your day. We waste so much
time on tasks that can wait…or never need to get done in
the first place. Lee Cockerell (a retired Disney executive) just
published a great book called
Time Management Magic.
If Lee
could run all of the Orlando Disney properties and still have
time to spend with his wife and children, certainly you can
learn his tools and find more balance in your life. Do you
know the most important person to spend time with? Your-
self. If you don’t have time to rest, relax, ponder and play, then
no matter how productive you are, you will never feel fully
engaged in your own life.
I made a deal with my own “inner child” this summer. I
committed to doing one fun thing every week. I must admit
that at first it was hard to step back from my “adult” concept
of fun being meeting a friend for lunch or taking a bike ride
for exercise. Instead I had carpet picnics, camped in my back-
Changing
Lives
Through
Laughter
yard, played board games and more. This lifestyle change
has made me happier, healthier and less stressed. I had a
teacher who told me, “
People who are too serious tend to
end up in serious condition.”
I’d rather worry less about
what people think of me when they see me dancing in the
rain and worry more about how I feel about myself.
And that is where we will end this four-part series. Yes,
we all face challenges in our professional lives. Yes, they
can create stress and worry. Yet, each of us has the free-
dom to choose how to handle these challenges. We can
withdraw back into victimmode and feel that “
life is hap-
pening to me
” or we can move forward determined to cre-
ate a “
life that happens because of me.”
One final riddle:
Imagine you are in a dark room. How do you get out of it?
Answer:
Stop imagining it!
Remember you are the master
of your thoughts, don’t let them take you where you don’t
want to go.
