Page A22
SEPTEMBER 2015
FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS
S ec t i on A
Merritt Funeral Home now offers a
“Camo” Fleet
SPRING HILL,FL—
The
Merritt family of
Merritt
Funeral Home
in Spring
Hill and Brooksville, FL,
strives to meet the needs
of the local population by
offering unique services at
both of their state of the
art facilities. After purchas-
ing a new hearse and limo
to serve as a third fleet, they
had one of their current
fleets camouflage wrapped,
to meet the needs of a large
outdoorsmen population in
their area.
“We found that the large
population, of hunters,
farmers, fisherman and
outdoorsmen were inter-
ested in camouflage urns
and caskets as well as oth-
er memorial keepsakes and
with a local company who
does commercial quality
vehicle wraps we decid-
ed to get one of our fleets
wrapped. The interest in
our cars has been great,”
said
Joe Merritt.
Merritt Funeral Home
has been family owned and
operated since 1982, with
two locations approximate-
ly 30 miles north of Tampa
Bay. Operated by the Mer-
ritt Family with
David
,
Lynn
and
Joe Merritt
in
charge of day to day op-
erations, the Merritts serve
about 400 at-need families
a year.
Murray Henderson’s New
Hearse
NEW ORLEANS,LA—
Lee Andre
Selico
(L) and
Alex Seli-
co
(R) of
Murray Henderson Funeral Home
take deliv-
ery of their new Cadillac Heritage Oval Window Hearse
and Family Limousine. The vehicles were delivered by
John Muster
(Center) of
Muster Coaches,
Calhoun, KY.
Murray Henderson Funeral Home is operated by
Con-
stance M. Selico
and
Shelita Selico Forges.
The funeral
home has a rich and long 100 year family owned and oper-
ated history.
By Sherry L. Williams
The Gift of
Aftercare
A recent article in my local newspaper by TomMurphy
and the Associated Press had the headline: “Death busi-
ness expands into hosting weddings.” The article went on
to say that funeral homes aren’t just for funerals anymore.
This is not foreign to me at all, but many of you may still
be having difficulty grasping this concept.
For years, I have been talking to funeral directors
about hosting support groups, having resource librar-
ies, sponsoring educational programs on site. I have
even suggested that you think about using your funer-
al home to host a health fair or to conduct a driving
safety program in your parking lot. My reasoning for
this has and continues to be for society to see that the
funeral home staff and business is an integral part of
the community. People have got to see that the funeral
home is more than a place that is all about death, that
it is a place for celebrating life.
For years, funeral homes have focused their market-
ing on conducting dignified services at the end of a
loved one’s life. It has only been in the last 10 years
that they have tried to shift the focus to helping a fam-
ily provide a meaningful personalized funeral that pro-
vides meaning to a loved one’s life. Have any of you
groups with meeting space, host senior fairs, health
fairs, art shows. There are many creative ways that
you can use your building to serve. You are only lim-
ited by your imagination. Use it, it can be a wonder-
ful and creative tool to help you think outside the
box – literally and figuratively.
Sherry L. Williams, RN,BA,GMS, GRS, is president and founder of
Sherry Williams Enterprises and Hopeful Transitions. Co-founder
of ACCORD Grief Management Services, she has devoted over
30 years to the field of grief and bereavement service. She has
an Associate Degree in nursing from the University of Kentucky
Extension Program and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology
from Bellarmine College in Louisville, KY. Sherry is a nationally cer-
tified grief management specialist, has received advanced certifi-
cation as a bereavement facilitator from the American Academy of
Bereavement and is certified by the Grief Recovery Institute as a
Grief Recovery Specialist.
She is a featured writer in In DeathCare Today and Funeral Home
& Cemetery News and is the publisher of Grief Magazine™ a quar-
terly publication for the bereaved. She is the author of Holiday
Help: A Guide for Holidays and Special Days, Beyond Goodbye
(A Guide for your Journey through Grief) and is a contributing
author to Every Woman’s Guide to Financial Security, When All
the Friends Have Gone (A Manual for Aftercare) and What To
Do When Someone Dies. She is listed in 2000 American Notable
Women for outstanding service to community, state and nation.
Sherry served on the Board of Trustees for the National Catholic
Ministry to the Bereaved, has co-chaired, nationally, the 1996
World Gathering on Bereavement and served as an advisor for
the 2001 World Gathering. She has been a featured speaker for
numerous organizations, including the National Funeral Directors
Association, The Association for Death Education and Counseling,
The National Catholic Ministry to the Bereaved, churches, support
groups and state funeral associations across the United States.
Sherry can be reached at
or at 502-
777-4934.
thought about shifting your focus to, “helping you tell
the story of your loved one’s life or focusing on the fact
that a person lived?” Funerals are indeed a celebration of
life – families don’t need to be reminded that their loved
one died – they will never forget that. They need to re-
member that they lived. Funerals are indeed for the living
and recognizing that a loved one lived, was loved, still is
and always will be.
As you try to grasp this concept, I might suggest that as
we move closer to the holiday season, you consider host-
ing your memorial service or celebration of lights at your
location. It is a good way to see that you and your staff are
there to support them and to remember with them.
You might let organizations use your family room for
meetings or card parties. I work with one firm that has
a group of seniors meet in one of his family rooms each
week and play cards. They provide a tray of sandwiches
and soft drinks. It has been a good way to get people in
the funeral home for something other than a funeral.
As you consider your landscaping or any other kind of
renovations, think about how you can create space that
can be used for a variety of activities. Be open minded
and think ahead about how the market is changing.
Another firm I work with hosts a big Polish celebration
each year in their parking lot. They serve brats and sauer-
kraut. They have live music and a crafts fair. It is an event
that people in the community plan for and help promote.
Get involved in your community and the people that
live there. Provide resources that will help non-profit
