“That such a life should be sacrificed, at such a time, by such a foul and diabolical agency; that the man at the head of the nation, whom the people had learned to trust with a confiding and a loving confidence, and upon whom more than upon any other were centered, under God, our best hopes for the true and speedy pacification of the country, the restoration of the Union, and the return of harmony and love; that he should be taken from us, and taken just as the prospect of peace was brightly opening upon our torn and bleeding country, and just as he was beginning to be animated and gladdened with the hope of ere long enjoying with the people the blessed fruit and reward of his and their toil, and care, and patience, and self-sacrificing devotion to the interests of Liberty and the Union”

–Dr. Phineas D. Gurley, pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, delivering Lincoln’s White House eulogy

  A funeral service for slain President Abraham Lincoln was held Sunday, April 30, 1865 in Indianapolis, Indiana. This was one of several stops as the funeral train travelled through 7 states on its journey from Washington, D.C. to Springfield, Illinois. The Indiana occasion became a viewing rather than a full funeral as the rain was so torrential that it cancelled several parts of the intended ceremonies.

  Terry Benedict Birkson wrote in HistoricIndianapolis.com: “The funeral train was expected to arrive here on Sunday morning, April 30, 1865. Governor Morton, together with his staff, members of the legislature and the city council went to Richmond to meet the train and escort it to the city Sunday morning came bringing with it a cold, drizzling rain, but before daylight thousands of people had congregated in and around the union depot to await the coming of the train. The immense crowd stood for hours talking in whispers. It seemed as if everyone felt the awful solemnity of the occasion. At about seven o’clock the train slowly pulled into the station. The coffin was tenderly lifted from the car in which it had rested, and was slowly borne to the catafalque which had been constructed for the purpose of conveying the body through the streets and to the state-house where it was to lie in state. A procession followed in solemn silence except the funeral music discoursed by the band, and the low sobbings of the multitude who lined the streets. The whole city was elaborately decorated with funeral emblems.”

            A second funeral was held in Indianapolis for Lincoln on October 20, 2015. This “Service of Remembrance” was a meaningful and moving tribute. It was held in the Indianapolis Convention Center in conjunction with the National Funeral Directors Association’s Annual Convention. A Lincoln re-enactor was the embodiment and the rhetorical equal of our 16th president.

  Todd Van Beck, funeral director and historian, delivered the funeral tributes of Lincoln from his assassination to his entombment in Springfield, Illinois. Van Beck retold the events of the Indianapolis tribute. He explained that each city was responsible for its own hearse and place of repose. A recreation of the Indianapolis hearse was on display at the Convention Center, all 4700 pounds of it, replete with silver adornments and large black plumes.

  Van Beck asked a very relevant question: “Why did Lincoln deserve such an ornate funeral?” The answer came to us later in the presentation. The country had just concluded a bitter and divisive war.

  The national mourning was not for one man, but for the approximately 750,000 dead from the North and South, leaving few homes and families untouched by the war that asked Americans to kill one another.

  As Lincoln stated in his second inaugural address: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

  No more prophetic words were given to help us with the National Funeral Directors’ House of Delegates’ vote on the future of the governance of this association.

  Another historic event occurred at the Indianapolis meeting.

  A proposal to change the governance structure of the association had been introduced in July and hotly contested since then.

  The changes introduced in the Policy Board Meeting in Orlando, Florida caused shock waves through the association. It would have reduced the policy board to an advisory board and reduced its mandate to only electing one of the two At-Large Representatives. It would also ask the policy board members be state association presidents or past presidents. The power would be shifted to the “Board of Directors” (formerly the Executive Board).

  This did not go over well with the policy board for several reasons. It invalidated the purpose of the board and gave all decision rights to the now named “Board of Directors”. The Leadership Summit attendees received a redirected message and the dissention started.

  Christine Pepper and her staff worked very hard to listen to the members, invested parties and the executive board. A revised plan was submitted where the Policy Board would remain the Policy Board and elect all of the at-large representatives. The new board of directors would make policy based on the Advocacy Committee’s recommendations (with consult from the Policy Board) and create and encourage members seen as able and recognized to run for national office.

  The most important part of the resolution was for the members. It dissolves the House of Delegates. In my opinion, this was a stacked deck to any vote. The individual member did not get a vote: the delegates did.

  Now every member, as they do in any other election, has a single vote. This will be electronic. The process will be explained to all members.

  This association, that members pay hard earned dues to, is theirs to decide. The member’s vote, not the associations or block vote, will be counted.

  The burden now falls on you, if you are a member! Each one of you has a vote. Each one of you has the opportunity to run for national office. Do not complain about your association unless you take the interest to serve and correct the direction of your national association.

  If you do not keep current on the issues and you do not let your concerns be known, how can changes happen? This resolution gives you full power with your individual vote.

   That day, October 20, 2015, 83% of its voting membership represented passed the resolution. Reconstruction has been achieved in the governance of the National Funeral Directors Association.

  “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”

-Abraham Lincoln