The lawsuit was filed by McCurdy and her sisters in Cumberland County Superior Court on the first of October. The funeral home, which is based in Portland, has since answered the complaint, denying any wrong-doing.

According to McCurdy's attorney, Brad Pattershall of Petruccelli, Martin & Haddow, LLP, the court will schedule a mediation session between the parties, sometime in the next four months, to see if a settlement can be reached before the matter actually goes before a judge.

Conroy-Tully Crawford President Christopher Crawford referred all inquiries regarding the lawsuit to his attorney, Fred C. Moore, who did not return phone calls before deadline.

McCurdy’s mother, Helen Glazier, died on Jan. 1 and was laid to rest on Jan. 4. A couple days before her death, Glazier fell into a coma and died of complications from kidney disease.

McCurdy said the funeral home offered to embalm Glazier’s body as part of the overall funeral package the family selected. When the coffin was placed at the front of the Cathedral Church in Portland on the day of the funeral, it began to leak a pinkish-reddish colored liquid.

The liquid pooled underneath the coffin and then began to run down the white marble floor of the church. According to both McCurdy and Pattershall, the family still has no idea what the liquid could have been.

“I suspect it was embalming fluid, but I don’t know for sure,” Pattershall said.

McCurdy said the pain of not knowing what the liquid was and not knowing what kind of disheveled state her mother might be in as she lies in her coffin at the cemetery is what tortures the family.

“Whenever my mother attended events she was absolutely regal. She had every single detail of her funeral written down before she died, even right down to the earrings she wanted to wear and the color of her lipstick,” McCurdy said.

“She told us she wanted to be wearing lipstick and to have her glasses so she could see where she was going and she would look good when she got there,” McCurdy remembered.

“My mother’s death was truly beautiful and we should be able to rejoice in that. But now when we visit the cemetery, we only feel sad and angry."

McCurdy said the sight of the reddish liquid dripping from her mother’s coffin totally distracted her from the funeral service and she wasn’t the only one affected.

She said the priest giving the eulogy was clearly uncomfortable and wondering what was going on, as were the pallbearers who were sitting up front.

The complaint against the funeral home states: “During the funeral service, several of Mrs. Glazier’s family members, including plaintiffs, had their attention wholly diverted from the eulogy to an unknown, red-tinged liquid that was dripping from Mrs. Glazier’s casket onto the white marble floor of the Cathedral Church.”

The complaint goes on to state: “The red-tinged liquid dripping from the casket accumulated in three puddles . . . One of the puddles became so large that a small stream began to run across the floor.”

McCurdy remembers that after the funeral there was a delay of 20 minutes or more before her mother’s casket was taken out of the church and driven in the hearse to the cemetery.

During that time, she said, Conroy-Tully Crawford employees were trying to wipe up the liquid and the funeral procession to the cemetery was delayed until the cleanup was complete.

“The thing that upsets me the most is that there has been no sense of responsibility and no sympathy from the funeral home for what the family went through. My mother was such a proud woman and she was always meticulous with the details. My sister Carolyn cries every time she thinks of our mother lying there all disheveled,” McCurdy said.

McCurdy said on the day of the funeral a niece tried to find out what was going on. She said employees of the funeral home told the niece the liquid was water dripping from the flowers near the altar. But McCurdy said the only flowers present at the funeral were in an arrangement of flowers placed on the coffin that had no water.

She said when the family didn’t get any satisfaction by calling the funeral home to find out what happened, she filed a complaint with the Board of Funeral Services. “All I want is for the funeral home to take responsibility and help the family get closure,” McCurdy said.

According to both McCurdy and Pattershall, the board conducted an investigation into the incident and gave the funeral home “a slap on the wrist” and told Crawford “to be more careful next time.”

In a Sept. 18 letter from the Board of Funeral Services to Crawford, the board said he had broken no laws and that the liquid dripping from the coffin didn’t rise to the level of requiring the board to take formal disciplinary action against him.

However the funeral board did send Crawford a “letter of guidance” saying the funeral home has a duty to take special care of a deceased's body .

The letter states: “. . . in the preparation of a deceased person, it is imperative that the condition of the deceased be monitored while in your care, especially when the condition of the body is known to have complications that might need special attention.”

Pattershall is hopeful that the mediation session required by the court before the case goes to trial will lead to something "postive".

He said, however, for his clients to be satisfied he would expect Crawford to “offer some sort of monetary compensation and some sort of apology.”