Taphophilia.(dot) Com - Funeral Home Employee Says Hell Return Womans Deposit For Mausoleum

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Funeral Home Employee Says Hell Return Womans Deposit For Mausoleum

Written by DeadGirl
Sunday, 26 February 2006
By Charla Young (LOUISVILLE) -- We have an update now on a woman who has been trying for months to carry out her brother's wish to be interred in an above-ground vault. He died in November, and his sister made a down payment on a mausoleum to a funeral home worker but she says he never delivered on his promise. As WAVE 3 Troubleshooter Charla Young reports, he says he plans to return the money, but now it's too late. For the past few months Jennifer Cooler and her family have been trying keep their promise to her brother not to bury him in the ground when he died. "Me and my brother lived on a cemetery in Utica all of our life," Jennifer said. "We used to walk down the hill all the time, and he would always say: 'don't ever put me in the ground. I want to be in a vault.'" It was something Jennifer thought she'd have plenty of time to plan for, but 33-year-old James Nifong died suddenly in November. Jennifer thought his life insurance money would pay for a mausoleum, but his ex-wife was the beneficiary, and she refused to spend $11,000 for an above-ground vault. Jennifer turned to someone else. "I had ran into a gentleman at my work that said he was a funeral director and that he could save me thousands of dollars if I went through him." The family held fundraisers and came up with nearly $6,000 toward the cost of a mausoleum. They signed a contract and wrote Johnny Marshall -- who worked at A. D. Porter & Sons Funeral Home at the time -- a check for nearly $3,000 as a down payment. Jennifer says he took the money and ran. But Marshall says that's not true. After our story aired Friday, he called my cell phone over the weekend and left this voicemail: "It did not happen like they say it happened, and I want a chance to tell you my side of the story." Marshall refused to talk on camera, though he did speak to us by phone. "I didn't just take the money and run," he said. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience. The family will have their money by March 10th." Unfortunately, Marshall's promise is too little, too late for Jennifer. After paying $20 a day since November to keep her brother's body refrigerated, she had no choice but to bury him today. "I just never thought I would have to go to this day and put my brother in the ground, and I just knew we were gonna get everything worked out. We didn't get it done." Needless to say, Jennifer feels terrible about going against her brother's wishes. "I know if it was me laying there, he would already have mine done for me." Marshall told me he will mail a check to the station in time to make sure we get it to the family on or before March 10th. Resthaven Cemetery and Louisville Memorial Gardens East did step up to offer the family free mausoleums, but Jennifer says they want to keep her brother in the Utica Cemetery so he can be near other family members. A. D. Porter & Sons Funeral Home fired Marshall after our story aired. We'll let you know whether or not Marshall lives up to his promise to return the money. http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=4527171&nav=0RZF

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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