Heritage Coach Dealer Blog USA

If you have ever been to a traditional funeral, you have probably noticed hymns playing in the background or someone may have even sung a hymn during the actual service. Hymns are very popular at funerals, but do you know why?

Music has an uncanny way of expressing how we feel when we are dealing with grief. By expressing our feelings, certain songs tend to be soothing and comforting when we are feeling at our lowest. In addition to that, hymns tend to be familiar to people, even those who rarely step foot inside a church.

But more pop songs are being used at funerals these days in place of hymns or even in addition to hymns. Here are some of the most popular songs played at funerals:

Wind Beneath My Wings – Better Midler
Candle in the Wind – Elton John
How Great Thou Art
It Is Well With My Soul
Tears in Heaven – Eric Clapton
Amazing Grace
Rock of Ages
Go Rest High on that Mountain – Ricky Skaggs
…and several others.

Do you see a song on this list that you would want played at your funeral? What song would you like played or sung at your funeral?

Have you heard the one about the 16 year old girl who haunts a local funeral home? If not, click the image above to play the video. With Halloween right around the corner, this is our time of year. Our time to shine. When you sell new and used hearses, you get excited around Devil’s Night.

When I watched the video of the 16 year old girl, it gave me the idea of setting up a haunted funeral home, similar to a haunted house on Halloween. Have any of the funeral directors out there reading this blog ever turned your funeral home into a haunted funeral home? If so, I hope you’ll share your story with us in the comments section of this blog. If you haven’t tried this, perhaps you should? I think it would be fun and it would definitely get your name out there in the local community.

If you do decide to setup a haunted funeral home, check out our post on renting a hearse for Halloween.

Happy Halloween from the Heritage Coach Company.

Mark Guest was known for his enthusiasm for his motorcycle and riding it every chance he could. So when a procession of funeral cars followed him to his final resting place after being killed in a traffic accident, a large group of his biker friends followed behind for an impressive show of goodbyes.

Guest was only 46 years old when he was killed. He was a father and he had many friends that mourn the loss. At the funeral chapel, it was standing room only because there were so many people that wanted to pay their respects to the man they nicknamed “Pedro.”

“Pedro died when life still offered so much to him, his family and his friends,” said Reverend Cecil Mann during the service. “Motorbikes were his life. He enjoyed being on the open road.”

Pedro was also known for loving music and reading. “He was a deep thinker and a truly loving and caring person. That’s why there are so many people here today,” said the reverend.

It’s always sad when such a beloved person gets killed in the prime of their life. We probably all know someone like this in our life. We should all strive to be like this to others. Maybe the world would be a much better place if there were more people like Pedro.

One of the major problems that funeral directors and grieving families have had to deal with in recent years is the group of people from a “church” in Kansas that protest at funerals. For months, they have been showing up at funerals for soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice and others who have been in the service of this country in some form or another. They protest because they say those people are dying because God hates America.

A recent court case brought the church to trial, however, saying that their speech was not protected under the First Amendment as it constituted “hate speech.” After losing the case, a federal appeals court overturned the decision, saying the church has a right to protest regardless of how unpopular their message is.

“Our speech, on our signs and our Web sites, is public speech,” explains Margie Jean Phelps, the daughter of Reverend Fred W. Phelps, Sr., the pastor of the Westboro Kansas Church. “It’s not on private matters. It’s on public issues, so it’s protected.”

For now, it seems like funeral cars and mourners are going to have to dodge these protestors. They do have the right to speak their mind in the United States, even if it is a despicable message.

If you want to make a point about death or some dangerous habits that lead to death, funeral cars are an ideal attention-grabber. One sheriff in Marshall County, Alabama realizes this and he plans to use a hearse in an effort to deter the area’s youth from drugs.

The hearse, which is a simple one used for carrying caskets to their final resting places, now has images and words on it that make teenagers think twice before using drugs. Phrases like “Meth: Your Highway to Death” and “Don’t let meth make this your last ride” are designed to equate meth and drugs with death so kids and teenagers will stay away from these substances. Teens may even see the coffin inside and feel like that could be them if they use drugs.

“We want kids to realize where meth will lead you. It’s one of those things, a visual aid, it’s attractive to kids, they see it and it’s interest to them,” explained Scott Walls, the Marshall County Sheriff. He got the idea to use a hearse for this purpose from another department quite some time ago, but he could not implement it until recently when an anonymous donor donated the hearse to the sheriff’s office. He plans to take it to various schools throughout the area to teach kids the danger of drugs before they even start using them.