Funeral Cruises & Comedy Cameos | 4M #197

Welcome to the hundred-and-ninety-seventh edition of Morticians’ Monday Morning Mashup, 4M #197, where we’ll serve up bite-sized, easily-digestible nuggets of the deathcare news you need to crush conversations in the week ahead. Bon appetit!

I’m diggin’ it already

Comedian Druski and YouTube influencer Theo Von are teaming up for “Digger’s,” a buddy comedy that has Druski trying to make a go of his father’s funeral home with the help of his brother-in-law, Von. If the trailer above is any indication, these guys — with the help of cameos by Shane Gillis, Navv Greene, and BenDaDonnn — will have audiences dying laughing. This short has gone viral, and a full-length film is in the works. It wouldn’t hurt our feelings if somehow the NFDA could possibly finagle an exclusive preview in Chicago this fall … just saying.

It’s always a one-way ticket

The value of a shipping protection plan is indescribable for those families who have had to take advantage of these services to transport a loved one who has died away from home. But although these programs are often dubbed “travel plans,” they definitely aren’t offering the same services as the travel programs being offered in the deathcare space in Korea. A recent article in Korea Times explains that “funeral service firms” have actually “expanded into the travel business” — as in cruises and golf resort vacations. A closer read reveals that these firms are actually insurance companies that offer both preneeds and, now, the option to prepay for future travel abroad. 

Hallford pleas

Last week we shared that Jon Hallford, co-owner of the disgraced Return to Nature funeral home in Penrose, Colorado, had entered into a plea deal in which he admits guilt and could serve up to 20 years in federal prison on fraud charges. This week, Hallford has filed an appeal for a shorter sentence. In the meantime, his wife and business partner, Carie Hallford, is set to change her not guilty plea to similar federal financial charges to a guilty plea, which means she won’t go to trial in the fall as expected. Both Hallfords have pleaded guilty to state charges of abuse of a corpse after allowing nearly 200 bodies to decompose in their facility over more than three years.

Adoption of ashes

A concerned citizen driving by a shuttered Kansas City, Missouri funeral home who noticed small boxes stacked outside the doors soon realized that the 17 containers held the cremated remains of individuals who had died over the past year-and-a-half. The state’s funeral board shut down the troubled Savory and Sons Funeral Home last month after multiple complaints. The man collected the boxes — plus a few smaller ones containing memorial jewelry — and took them to another local funeral home whose director promised to work diligently to reunite the remains with families. Kudos to that director, Michael Adkins, of Serenity Funeral Home, for stepping up for these families!

A well-deserved honor

Congratulations to our friend Bob Arrington, Founder and President of Arrington Funeral Directors and co-founder of Obituaryshare, who was added to the Tennessee Funeral Directors Association’s Wall of Fame! According to a local news report, this honor is “reserved for individuals who have made significant contributions to the funeral service profession in Tennessee and reflects Bob’s decades of compassionate service and dedication to families across West Tennessee.” Mr. Arrington definitely fits this bill!