August 2020

Page A18 AUGUST 2020 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on A By Mark Bowser The True Height of a Leader Abraham Lincoln was an exceptionally tall man. He stood an impressive six feet, four inches tall. That is tall even for our day, but in his era, he must have seemed like a giant. He then would wear a tall top hat made of silk. When he had it on, he stood close to seven feet tall from toe to top hat. President Lincoln loved to stand back to back with people to measure height. One day, President Lincoln stopped at Aquia Creek, Virginia in order to review some of his troops. Almost immediately the President’s attention gravitated towards a very tall young man. This young Pennsylvania seventeen year old seemed to tower over his comrades. The President got the young man’s attention. Mahlon Shaaber stepped forward. When the young man reached Lincoln, it is believed that the President said, “Turn around, young fellow and put your back against mine while I take off my hat.” Almost immediately, the President knew he had been bested. Shaaber was much taller than the President. This lanky young man hov- ered over Lincoln by two and half inches. The Foundations of Success for Funeral Directors But what does height really mean to a leader? How does it impact our leadership lives? Well, I believe that the true height of a leader is not in how much we tower above the ground, but in how high our integrity towers over im- morality. In Lincoln’s case he seemed to tower in physical height, as well as integrity height. One time, an overnight White House guest heard great groans and moans coming from another room. The guest quietly slipped out of bed to investigate the mysterious sounds. What was discovered comforted the guest’s heart and mind. The noise was the President. The guest saw Lincoln prostrate on the floor pleading to Almighty God for His help in this national crisis, the Civil War. The guest was comforted because he knew the country was in good hands, because the height of its president was flat against the floor. A height that looked straight up to God. That is the height of integrity. For the last few months, we have been in our own crisis with this COVID-19. I’m not saying that our challenge is as bad or as difficult as the challenge Lincoln faced during the Civil War. But, as leaders, it is our solemn and many times lonely responsibility to lead our teams through the clouds of fog in our paths. Your team and your community will take your lead. Lead them into the sunshine by being a Lincoln in the midst of struggle. Trust yourself and trust your team. To view a video on this topic from one of Mark Bowser’s live seminars then go to https://youtu.be/NXRBFB8cLvM Excerpted and adapted from Mark Bowser’s Seminar, The Foundation of Success for Funeral Directors . To schedule Mark Bowser as a speaker for your next event or conference then email mark@BrightCorporation.com or visit www.MarkBowser.com Mark Bowser is the Vice President at one of the funeral indus- tries premier stationary publishers, the Bright Corporation, and one of the top Professional Business Speakers in the United States. He is the author of several books including The 3 Pillars of Success for Funeral Directors and Sales Success with Zig Ziglar. He can be reached at 1-800-428-6424 or email mark@BrightCorporation.com. FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS www.nomispublications.com Monthly Columns online at mymortuarycooler.com Are you state compliant? Grief Coach. “We support people after deaths, includ- ing suicides, cancer and stillbirths, but it was a new ex- perience having to learn about the specific bereavement needs of people who have lost someone to COVID-19. We worked with Virginia Mason Grief Services to craft customized texts that span common COVID grief re- sponses including being frustrated with testing and treat- ments, feeling angry with people not following guidelines and wearing masks, and of course sadness because they couldn’t be with their loved ones at the end.” With the need for remote grief support and online memorialization sky rocketing, Benoualid and Payne recognized that collaborating would support more people. Grief Support and Keeper have launched a partnership to expand their capacity to fill the gaps created by the global pandemic. With funerals, sup- port groups and even hugs no longer available, the two founders are proud to be scaling their ability to deliv- er support that is urgently needed. With Grief Coach and Keeper, people can share memories, remember their dearly missed loved ones, and support each other in their grief, safely and from a distance. Keeper is a social memorial website dedicated to re- membering the lives of the departed. Individuals can cre- ate a collaborative memorial, where friends and family can leave tributes, upload photos, like, share, comment, connect, and remember those who are dearly missed. Keeper also proudly partners with cemeteries and funeral homes to offer a suite of digital memorialization tools. To learn more visit www.m ykeeper .com. Grief Coach sends personalized text messages to help people after someone dies. Grieving people receive re- sources and tips, all year long, to help them feel less alone. If they have friends and family who want to help, but aren’t sure how, Grief Coach will text them suggestions too. Grief Coach also works with non- profits, hospices, tissue banks, employers, and others who provide bereavement support. To learn more, visit https://grief.coach/ . business of high presentation and representation with bold claims of incredible value has held itself in such high regard that it has ignored other industries of science. This decision has consequences, and the consequence is that it has fallen far behind advancement. Big Business will boast that they have had “the best for fifty years,” while changing nothing but a casement of their product. They will announce the release of this same product incepted over fifty years ago, with nothing more but new aesthetically appealing flare. To the point that a family may choose to arrange the direct disposal of some- one they love out of fear, having been witness to what a fu- neral home calls embalming. Shame on you, funeral service. Read Pascal’s Flaw & The Rascal’s Law in its entirety at https://pascalsflaw.mortuarymagic.com/ . J. M. Bernaudo, CFSP, of Long Island, NY, is the Chief Research & Design Scientist at Your Mortuary Magic Store, Inc., holding the US. Patent for the Speed Control Syringe Embalming Pump as well as the Speed Control Cen- trifugal Embalming Pump. Pascal’s Flaw & The Rascal’s Law Continued from Page A17 Keeper and Grief Coach Partner across Borders to Support People after a Death SEATTLE,WA— Coping with loss during COVID-19 requires new kinds of grief support and memorializa- tion services, delivered safely from a distance. Seattle- based Grief Coach, a text message grief support ser- vice, and Keeper, an online memorial solution based in Ontario, Canada, are proud to announce a partner- ship to bring their digital solutions to people strug- gling with loss during the pandemic. Keeper has provided online memorial tools to fami- lies and funeral service providers since 2013, and has experienced a spike in users creating sites to memorial- ize their loved ones and plan virtual funerals since the pandemic began. Mandy Benoualid, co-founder and president of Keeper explains that, “COVID-19 has led more people to look online for meaningful memorial solutions, and we are happy to provide a simple, se- cure way for family members across the globe to share memories, plan memorial services and receive commu- nity support.” Grief Coach, a start-up delivering grief support via text message, added COVID-19 as a new cause of death in their system in March. After being featured by NBC News in April, individuals and organizations including hospices, nursing homes and police departments sought out Grief Coach in order to support their grieving com- munities. “I never imagined needing to add a new cause of death to our system,” says Emma Payne, founder of