Ken McKenzie owns a funeral home, and along with Todd Hara, wrote a book about his experiences titled Over Our Dead Bodies: Undertakers Lift the Lid. Salon has an excerpt about a funeral that did not go as planned. Although it wasn’t a typical day, it’s the kind of experience that makes people advise a person to write a book. Here’s a snippet:
As I approached the chapel, several people fled the scene, and each time I jumped over to the far wall as if to hide. Luckily, they were too intent on fleeing to bother me. Emboldened, I ducked into the rear of the chapel, and what I saw shocked me. The casket was toppled over and everything that wasn’t bolted down had been tossed everywhere, ostensibly used as weapons. All my precious antiques were mostly shattered. Flower petals and blossoms poured from the sky like a ticker tape parade—the floral arrangements had been thrown and re-thrown and re-thrown. And of course the blood—it was everywhere. The walls. The carpets. The pews. I wanted to cry, but instead I shouted at the top of my lungs, “Police! The police are coming!”
Nobody paid a lick of attention to me, and then a wooden tissue box cover hit me in the face.
You’ll want to read the entire story at Salon. I’ve been to a few rowdy funerals, but so far, none have included a visit by the SWAT team. -via Digg
(Image credit: Flickr user Great Beyond)