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Welcome
Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
A Taphophilia Thank You...
Taphophilia (dot) Com would not be possible without the knowledge, experience and talent of DarkestWeb. From its conception and early development, DarkestWeb was faced with many challenges; from inspiring and motivating, to providing guidance and direction. The continued dedication and support has produced results greater than ever expected, and for this, I owe a huge debt of gratitude.
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Graveyards of Chicago:
The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries
By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski. Discover a Chicago That Exists Just Beneath the Surface - About Six Feet Under! Take a tour of Chicago's permanent residents! Please visit the Lake Claremont Press website to purchase your copy of Graveyards of Chicago today!
Green-Wood Cemetery Arcadia Publishing announces the release of Alexandra Mosca's historic account of one of New York's most famous cemeteries. Aracdia Publishing's Images of America series has an extensive catalog of many cemetery publications! Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Green-Wood Cemetery and to browse other available titles!
Men of Mortuaries Calendar
To purchase your 2008 calendar, learn more about the KAMMCARES Foundation, or to be featured in the 2009 calendar, please visit Men of Mortuaries.
Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers
For information regarding subscriptions, single issues, submission guidelines, deadlines, classifieds or advertising for future issues, please visit The Cemetery Club.
Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints, Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture
with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman is now
available. Please visit
Studio Indiana for more information.
West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.
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In Ash Mix-Up Case, Jury Decides All Remains the Same |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Sunday, 26 March 2006 |
By Kelly-Anne Suarez, Times Staff Writer
March 25, 2006
Betsy Mleynek had planned, when the time came, to sprinkle her mother's ashes off the Redondo Beach coastline the older woman loved. But one month after Mary Clark's death in 2003 at age 84, Mleynek learned her remains had already been released into the sea.
By another family. Off Malibu.
McCormick Mortuary called Mleynek to say the labels on the wrapping of two urns had been switched. An official apologized and told her she would be reimbursed. The $1,750 check arrived months later with Mleynek's name misspelled.
"They couldn't even get that right," she said in a telephone interview from her home in Salt Lake City. "They just didn't care."
Mleynek, her sister and other family members sued the Redondo Beach mortuary for emotional damages. It admitted negligence, and last week a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury in Torrance decided how much Mleynek's loss was worth: $0.
Juror Margaret Strong said the jury felt that if the family were truly distraught, they would have taken the mortuary up on its offer to charter a boat in Malibu, where they could visit the spot where Clark's remains had been scattered.
"They would have done anything to alleviate the pain," the retired teacher said.
When Mleynek cried on the witness stand, the jurors saw a woman who was upset over the loss of her mother, not over her ashes, Strong said. "Ashes are ashes, and they're in the ocean. By now, they've probably drifted out to Avenue E where they wanted them in the first place."
Mleynek said the loss hit her particularly hard because her father, a pilot for Western Airlines, disappeared when his plane plunged into San Francisco Bay in 1953. The family never recovered his body.
She said her mother would spend hours gazing out at the sea, losing herself in the waves. "It was her way of being close to him again," she said. "She knew he was out there."
Steve Gurnee, a lawyer for McCormick's parent company at the time of the mix-up, SCI California Funeral Services, wasn't convinced. "They may have been momentarily distressed, but certainly not three years after the fact," he said. "If they were that upset, they should have gotten professional help, which they didn't."
Gurnee has handled many similar cases and said it's not uncommon for bereaved families to sue death-care companies for what he called "simple human errors." It's also not unusual for them to lose, he said.
Through the lawsuit, Mleynek learned that shortly before her mother's cremation, the room's roof collapsed. McCormick continued to use the room, although SCI owned several other functioning crematoriums in the L.A. area, said John Carey, the family's attorney.
The worker who mislabeled the two urns testified that part of the problem was that he was working amid the roof debris.
Mleynek said McCormick intensified her pain by refusing to give her the name of the family who received and released her mother's ashes.
During the trial, she said she learned the family had expressed a desire to meet with Clark's loved ones and give them copies of photos they'd taken during their ceremony.
According to court documents, the other family scattered what they believed to be their relative's ashes only to look at the urn more closely and see a different name: Mary Clark. They contacted McCormick, which gave them the proper urn.
The mortuary had that family sign a confidentiality agreement in exchange for reimbursement for all of their expenses related to the cremation and ceremony, Carey said.
Strong said jurors believed the family's suffering did not rise to the legal definition they were given of a seriously emotionally distressed person — one who is unable to cope with anger, grief or pain as the average person would.
Mleynek said she still suffers from crying fits, recurring headaches and nightmares.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-ashes25mar25,1,521172.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california&ctrack=1&cset=true |
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“If we don't know life, how can we know death?” Confucius
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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