Attended a funeral today.

[Danny Ryder]

My great aunt died and just got back from her funeral where I was ask to be a paul bearer. I did this with pride knowing the funeral business and actually this was first time I had been ask to do this. Oh, we often had to help with it when I worked in the funeral world being some families for what ever reason didn't always have enough guys to do this so we did what we had to. The compeating funeral home to the one I worked at had the service and we always were heavy rivals. I sat there on the front pew and watched how the directors carried out the service and was reminded of the pride and detail we took with funerals and was again reminded I didn't want these guys having anything to do with a funeral for my immediate family. They just didn't do things the way we used to.:pat:

[Terri Vyse]

Sorry to hear about your great aunt, Danny. And I'm sorry the rival funeral home got the call. Good thing you were there to keep them straight.

[Danny Ryder]

Thanks Terri, she lived a long life and was 95 last July. All my family does not share my dislike of that funeral home but I see the inside works and they see only outside.

[Richard Vyse]

I'm sorry to hear of your loss as well Danny. It is never easy even someone who lived as long as she did to let go.

[Danny Ryder]

I'm sorry to hear of your loss as well Danny. It is never easy even someone who lived as long as she did to let go.

She was sharp as a tack up till the end and had good health until recently. She lived a good life.

[Lynn Vizvary]

Sorry to hear of your loss, but it sounds like she lived a long life. May you have many happy memories of her.

[John ED Renstrom]

some time knowing what goes on is a curse. glad to hear that she was doing well till the end that is the best we can hope for in this life.

[Danny Ryder]

some time knowing what goes on is a curse. glad to hear that she was doing well till the end that is the best we can hope for in this life.

Thought of that Ed, if I hadn't known all the inside stuff on them I wouldn't have noticed as much. Most people wouldn't have seen as much as me unless they had been to one of our services years ago or another funeral home. It is just a bunch of small things like leaving the casket off center and crooked in the chapel and they gave the paul bearers no instructions as to where what or how to act so soon into it they figured out I knew what to do and mainly followed my lead which I thought was kinda funny. Maybe we over instructed people on what to do?

[John Dorgan]

Am I wrong, but isn't it "pall bearer"?

[LeeAnn Boston]

Who needs spell check around here? LOL Danny, sorry about your Aunt. Sounds like she lived a long and happy life. See 'ya in a few days!

[Richard Vyse]

Misspelling words is a PCS thing. Heck, even Terri has misspelled words on this site a number of times and she is smart. :applause:

Down my way it's a rare thing to even have pallbearers and would probably have to look it up in the dictionary. :agree:

[LeeAnn Boston]

Misspelling words is a PCS thing. Heck, even Terri has misspelled words on this site a number of times and she is smart. :applause:

Down my way it's a rare thing to even have pallbearers and would probably have to look it up in the dictionary. :agree:

Yeah, most of us aren't rocket engineers, we are a group of people that love old hearses, ambulances and limos - even if we do pronouce them wrong sometimes, or spell them wrong - and for the most part love each other, too! Nobody is perfect!!

[Richard Vyse]

Nobody is perfect!!

Wait a minute LeeAnn, except me of course. You do know I own a Criterion don't you.....

:3_7_11v:

[LeeAnn Boston]

Wait a minute LeeAnn, except me of course. You do know I own a Criterion don't you.....

:3_7_11v:

Isn't that an amb-u-lance?

[Danny Ryder]

Am I wrong, but isn't it "pall bearer"?

Thanks John, knew something was wrong with that but see Paul S. listed so much got confused!:stars:

[Richard Vyse]

Am I wrong, but isn't it "pall bearer"?

I should probably leave this alone but no it not, it is pallbearer.

[Rocky Pollard]

I saw it mispelled on a funeral home's information sheet once, it was spelled with a B in lieu of a P:poster_oops: The form had been used for three years before anyone noticed it. All was ok because all previous funeral arrangement made on those sheets were carried out with sucess. This just goes to show that a misspelled word will not stop the world from turning or the sun from rising.:my2cents:

[Tony Karsnia]

First and foremost, I'm sorry to hear about your great-aunt, Danny. Having grown up in a "two funeral home town" I know what it is like to have the competition get a call for someone you know, then you go to the service and watch the details. We usually had a slight edge over our competitor (volume-wise), but there was truly enough business in our area for two funeral homes. If we lost a call we thought we'd get, the next week they'd lose a call to us, so it really wasn't that big of a deal. We always prided ourselves on having a major edge over our competitor when it came to running a service. They did a nice job, but my dad was / is very detail oriented (and thankfully that rubbed off on me.)

Details do make all the difference in funeral service, though. I couldn't imagine starting a funeral without having spoken to the pallbearers. Had a funeral on Friday at one of the churches we frequent. The service was small and the six pallbearers were older gentlemen who have all been pallbearers more times than they'd care to remember. Still, I gathered them together and appropriately joked that they didn't need any instructions from me, to which they all laughed and agreed. I still had them sign the pallbearer page in the register book, reminded them they'd be sitting in the front pew on the right side, and discussed their mode of transportation to the cemetery.

The smallest details make the biggest differences...

[Paul Steinberg]

Thanks John, knew something was wrong with that but see Paul S. listed so much got confused!:stars:

OK... Blame me. :boo:
I saw the misspelled word right after you posted it, and was tempted to correct the spelling, however, I only correct spelling when the word that is incorrectly misspelled is so far off the mark that most will not be able to figure out what the poster is trying to say. Misspelling is one of those things that we all need to learn to forgive, since not all of us are that good of a speller. If it were not for a good spell check program on my computer, I would have quite a few misspelled words also. The real trick is to know exactly what word you want to use, and then select that word from the list that the spell check program lists. Sometimes, you can't even find the word, and then I head over to www.dictionary.com (http://www.dictionary.com) and search for the correct word by trying different spellings until I find it. On occasions, I just can't find the word, and then I rewrite the sentence.

As an example, spell check just corrected two words in this post that I misspelled...

How long will it be before someone decides that we will start criticizing people for not using proper punctuation? Let he who is perfect throw the first stone, and until that one perfect person joins these forums, then we should just become more tolerant of our fellow members.
Thanks
Pall

[Danny Ryder]

I know you would be detail oriented Tony. I actually had to ask to get my I.D. tag and that was all. Most of the guys had not been pallbearer before and could have been helped with some direction.

[Paul Steinberg]

I know you would be detail oriented Tony. I actually had to ask to get my I.D. tag and that was all. Most of the guys had not been pallbearer before and could have been helped with some direction.

I have been a pallbearer many times in the past, and I have never been given an I.D. tag. That must be a Southern think?

[Danny Ryder]

I have been a pallbearer many times in the past, and I have never been given an I.D. tag. That must be a Southern think?

Don't know Paul? Everywhere I have been to a funeral they have been marked somehow so may be more southern? We used corsage's to identify the pallbearers, some places I have seen these with fake ones but for my great aunt's funeral they had a round plastic thing about size of bottom of small cup with funeral home name on it and ribbon hanging off it with pallbearer wrote on it. Kinda cheezey I thought. The preachers had stick on red rose things. We used to do pallbearer in white and preacher in red. ALso they said nothing about how to follow hearse and lined up no one. Hearse left and everyone sat there so I pulled up near street and motioned for immediate family to go ahead then I followed. Maybe I need to go back and get my check for helping sooo much with the funeral?:071:

[John McCulloch]

Sorry about your aunt--hopefully good memories galore.
Patti and I owned and operated our funeral home for over 30 years in our small town of 2500--with opposition that sounds similar to yours. It is amazing how these folks continue to keep up the number of calls? Some of it is long-time family loyalities and they overlook the little things that we feel are so-o important. We were very blessed over the years to be able to break some of these ties and continued to offer our best...
A big hand to you for your kindness to Family & Pallbearers in a time of sadness & confusion.

[Richard Vyse]

We pin a carnation on the pallbearer's lapel to identify them as such and try to seat them together as a group. At the cemetery we line them up near the casket and upon completion of the service, have them remove their carnation and file past the casket laying it on top. We used to provide them with a pair of white gloves but traditions die quicker than people.

[Danny Ryder]

We pin a carnation on the pallbearer's lapel to identify them as such and try to seat them together as a group. At the cemetery we line them up near the casket and upon completion of the service, have them remove their carnation and file past the casket laying it on top. We used to provide them with a pair of white gloves but traditions die quicker than people.

Yeah, white carnation for pallbearers and red for preachers but we didn't place them on casket but nice touch. When we got to the cemetery and lined up behind hearse about all the undertaker did was mention where grave was and turned us loose. We always made sure to turn casket right way, explain how to set up on lowering device, what to do next, what to do after, etc.