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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.
Announcements
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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Woman Unable To Carry Out Brothers Dying Wish |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Monday, 20 February 2006 |
Woman Unable To Carry Out Brother's Dying Wish After Funeral Home Worker's Broken Promises
Feb 17, 2006
By Charla Young
(LOUISVILLE) -- It was her brother's dying wish -- not to be buried underground. He died November 11th and his sister has done everything in her power since then to keep that promise. But the family's out of time, and the man who was paid to help honor her brother's wish is long gone with their money.
Jennifer Cooler now lives in Louisville, but she says "me and my brother lived on a cemetery in Utica (Indiana) all of our life. 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.'"
Jennifer never thought she'd be forced to honor that wish so quickly, but her brother, James Nifong, died last November at the age of 33. His death has been hard to take.
"He is like everything to me," Jennifer says. "There's not a day that goes by that I don't talk to him. I miss him so much."
Jennifer thought it would be easy to honor her brother's last wish. He had an insurance policy. But she soon discovered the beneficiary was James's ex-wife, who refused to purchase an $11,000 mausoleum.
That was just the beginning of her problems. They got worse when Jennifer "ran into a gentleman at my work who said he was a funeral director, and he could save me thousands of dollars if I went through him."
The family held fundraisers to get the money, then drew up a contract with Johnny Marshall, an employee at A.D. Porter & Sons Funeral Home.
Jennifer paid Marshall an up front deposit of almost $3,000.
Robert Samuels, a family friend, tells WAVE 3 that Marshall "said he would be using the limos, the services -- everything from that funeral home when the time came."
Jennifer tells us that Marshall "said he would have a prototype in a couple of days. A couple of days never came."
That was November 11th. Since then her brother's body has been here at Scott's Funeral Home.
"We have refrigerated him since then," says Bill Scott Jr., "which does retard any major decomposition."
Scott Funeral Home charges $20 a day for the service, and after weeks of paying the fee, the family's now out of money.
So we contacted Woody Porter, the owner of A.D. Porter & Sons, who told us he fired Marshall after learning about what happened.
Porter tells us that when he confronted Marshall, "he said 'oh well, it's all a mistake and in a couple of days the people would have their money back.'"
Porter says his funeral home cannot take responsibility. "Those people paid John Marshall. They did not pay A.D. Porter Funeral Home."
We've been trying to find Marshall, but so far we haven't had any luck.
"I just wish Johnny Marshall would have came through with everything so that my brother could be put to rest the way he wanted to be," Jennifer says.
If we don't find Marshall, and no funeral home steps up with a mausoleum, Jennifer will be forced to bury her brother Monday in the Utica cemetery in a traditional underground vault.
It may be too late for Jennifer, but everyone should come away with a valuable lesson from her ordeal: don't do business with anyone unless you've done a background check.
And before you die, be sure to put your final wishes in writing -- and make sure money is available to carry out those plans.
http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=4518924&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
Quote Repository
“In the democracy of the dead all men at last are equal. There is neither rank nor station nor prerogative in the republic of the grave.” #NAME?
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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