Heritage Coach Dealer Blog USA

How many times have you visited a mausoleum where a loved one was interred and felt like it was such a depressing place? “It could use some decoration,” you may have thought from time to time. That’s exactly what Dennis Mascari was thinking when he visited his father’s final resting place. “Every time I went, I felt I was surrounded by a granite jungle,” he said in an article on MSNBC.com. “I thought, ‘This is no way to honor a person who lived 93 years.”

So Mascari came up with a solution. He created a section for the Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago called “Beyond the Vines.” The new section resembles Wrigley Field and allows funeral cars to line up outside while families say goodbye to that special Cubs fan in their life.

The idea is a good one. Many sports fans want their ashes scattered at the field of their favorite team. However, many sports franchises are discouraging people from doing this because they do not want funeral cars lined up outside the stadium. Besides, between mowing the lawn and replacing the turf, many ashes do not stay on the field.

That’s why “Beyond the Vines” is such a great idea. Maybe this will catch on and other cemeteries will follow suit with replications of their local sport stadiums. I’m sure it would be a great revenue generator!

You know thieves and thugs have sunk to a new low when they start breaking into unattended hearses and funeral cars at cemeteries. That’s exactly what is happening in California’s Los Angeles County.

Green Hills Memorial Park in Rancho Palos Verdes has had at least 10 burglaries in the last two years. All of those burglaries occurred with cars left unattended while a mourner was visiting a loved one’s gravesite or during a funeral service. The last incident so far was in August.

But that’s not the only cemetery where this despicable occurrence has happened. Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills has had similar instances. In January 2007, that cemetery reported 10 vehicle burglaries in the short span of one month!

“Their biggest ploy as of late is to follow funeral services with the idea that everybody is going to walk away from their cars and be anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour,” said the president of Green Hills Memorial Park, Rey Frew. “They see it as a golden opportunity because everybody is going to a grave site,” he continued.

The thieves generally smash the window if the car is locked. They then rummage through the hearses and funeral cars looking for anything that’s valuable. Keep this in mind the next time you’re at the cemetery. Maintenance workers at cemeteries in the area are keeping watch, too. It’s just a shame that you have to be on alert when you are grieving the loss of a loved one, but I suppose it’s just a sign of the times.

If you’re looking to “go out” in style, the Jaguar XJ8 hearses for sale are ideal for your final ride. The reviewers at Jalopnik.com saw one of these custom funeral cars on the streets of Detroit and they were quite impressed with what they saw.

The XJ8 Jaguar hearses for sale have windows in the back where the caskets sit. This makes it look much like the royal hearse that transported the body of Princess Diana to her final resting place about a decade ago. But what you don’t see is the multi-link rear suspension and driveshaft that helps turn the wheels. The hearse even has wheels from the Jaguar XJR to give it a sportier look than most hearses you see on the streets.

How would you like to take your final ride? Would you want to go in style in something like the Jaguar XJ8 hearse or a traditional Cadillac hearse? Or do you want to do something more creative and go in something like the back of a pickup truck or something else? There are many modes of transportation for going to your burial site. The only real limit is your imagination.

The city council in Reading, Pennsylvania has been faced with a decision to make regarding funeral cars and double parking. As the law stands right now, the city does not allow people to double park on streets even if it is for funerals. In addition to that, the city only allows eight funeral cars per block.

Mike Feeney, a local funeral director, is trying to get those regulations changed. Most funeral processions have at least 15 to 20 cars. He told the council that the current regulations mean that he and other funeral directors must park funeral cars three blocks away in some cases. And, as he said, it’s not easy getting those people back together for the procession to the burial site.

Strangely enough, these rules were enacted about ten years ago. However, they have not been enforced until the last couple years. The city council said it would look at the laws again, but they didn’t promise any changes. “Legislatively,” said Councilwoman Marcia Goodman-Hinnershitz, “we can’t give people a right to double park.” She went on to say, “But maybe we can get a working agreement.”

Do you have any thoughts on this matter? I don’t feel that funeral cars are a nuisance when they are double parked. But in today’s society where everybody is in a hurry and less respectful of mourners, I can see why some people would get mad and want these laws enforced.

Becoming eco-friendly is quickly becoming one of the biggest trends in the funeral industry. As a result, there are more and more fuel-efficient and eco-friendly hearses for sale to meet these wishes. It’s a great way to help the environment and reduce your carbon footprint even after you are no longer with us.

In addition to better funeral cars and hearses, people are choosing other ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Cremations are becoming more and more popular because they are better for the environment and they are less expensive. They also make sure their ashes get spread in places where they do not hurt the environment, such as around trees and vegetation.

But not everybody is getting cremated. People are getting buried while reducing the impact on the environment by choosing burial in fields or other places where their bodies can decompose and be better for the soil.

Trends like these and others are becoming so popular that funeral directors are having a difficult time keeping up with them. It’s nice that people are becoming more selfless and thinking about the impact they have on the planet even after they are gone.

I wouldn’t normally write about someone’s death on here, but this one is special to me because it’s about a famous person from Flint. Funeral cars gathered at the House of Prayer Missionary Baptist Church in Flint, Michigan yesterday to mourn the loss of rapper MC Breed. Some of the biggest names in the hip-hop and rap industry also showed up in funeral cars to pay their respects to one of the pioneers of this musical genre.

MC Breed died last month as a result from kidney failure. He was only 36 years old and is widely known as the first successful rapper from Flint. According to reports, more than 200 friends and family came to the hometown funeral, many of them dressed in leather, baggy pants and t-shirts with the words “The Legacy Lives On…Swagg Heavy.”

“He’s important to this city because he brought the Midwest to the map,” said Breed’s cousin Raheem Riley in and interview with ABC News. “As far as the rap game, he brought it to the map.”

During the service, MC Breed’s family received a key to the city, letters from the mayor and a declaration that December 2 would now be MC Breed day.

You never hear about funeral cars getting involved in accidents very often, but it happened last week in New Jersey.

In Rahway, New Jersey, a bus was stopped on St. Georges Avenue and Ross Street at the stoplight at about 1:15 PM on November 7. A hearse was parked behind the bus. An SUV slammed into the back of the stopped hearse, forcing it to ram into the back of the bus.

The two occupants in the hearse – the driver and his son – were rushed to a local hospital after being placed in back braces. Five passengers from the bus were also rushed to a local medical facility. Luckily, none of the injuries were life-threatening and the hearse was not transporting a body at the time of the accident, either.

The front of the hearse was mashed up pretty good. The driver of the SUV did not suffer any injuries and neither did her three female passengers.

Are people just forgetting how to drive these days? Doesn’t anybody look out for other people anymore? I mean, how hard is it to look in front of you and see not only a hearse but also a huge bus?!?! From the way it sounds, the accident could have been a lot worse. Let’s just be thankful it wasn’t!

Although most people choose to be taken to their final resting place in a traditional hearse or in funeral cars, some people have other ideas about their last ride.

Milon Boone Adams of Georgia wanted his final ride to be unique. Instead of using a procession of funeral cars, he wanted lo-boy trailer to take him to his burial site. If you don’t know what a lo-boy is, it’s one of those low trailers designed for carrying heavy equipment like bulldozers that are used for excavation projects.

Adams passed away on October 26 as a result of lung cancer. He was employed at Keller Outdoors. Before he died, he asked his boss if one of the company’s trailers could be used for the service. His employer arranged it with the Jesse Jones Funeral Home of Chatsworth, Georgia. According to Adams’ wife, Keller Outdoors was like his second family – “we always called them our Keller family,” she said in an interview with a local newspaper.

Funeral cars will always be the traditional fare for taking deceased people to their final resting place, but there’s nothing wrong with going out the way you choose.

Funeral directors in South Africa are planning to use their hearses and funeral cars in a protest to make their voice heard.

Michael Jwambi, a funeral owner of Nothemba, was tragically gunned down earlier this month. Many funeral directors believe taxi owners in the region are to blame for the tragic death. For years, the taxi owners have threatened the funeral directors and blocked them from transporting bodies in hearses to the Eastern Cape. This is just one aspect of a long battle between the two groups.

There were more than 2,000 mourners at the funeral of the slain man. Sandile Ngxamngxa, an official with the Unicity Funeral Directors Association in South Africa, told the audience that they would “not be bullied by taxi owners” and they would continue to do their job. He also stated in an interview with City Vision that the taxi drivers continue to threaten them and “making their lives miserable.”

Many funeral directors plan to park their hearses at the front door of parliament in hopes that President Kgalema Motlanthle will hear their grievances and do something about the problem. We’ll keep an eye on this story and see what happens.

When I’m looking for things pertaining to funeral cars to write about on this blog, many times I come across stories that end in tragedy due to drunk drivers. Unfortunately, this is one plague that we simply cannot get rid of in our society.

With everything we know about driving while intoxicated, why do so many people still insist that they “drive better after a few drinks” and they are able to drive home safely? This is just ridiculous and unfortunately often ends with innocent drivers and passengers taking one final ride in a procession of funeral cars.

I haven’t lost anybody to a drunk driver yet. I hope I never do. I can’t even imagine the heartache that a father, mother, husband, wife or child must go through after such a senseless chain of events. I would probably just lose it knowing that this was a tragedy that could have been avoided had the intoxicated person made other arrangements rather than testing his or her skills behind the wheel and risking the lives of others as a result.

I don’t mean to get on my soapbox, but this is just something that has to be stopped. And this is also probably one of the few issues that 99.9 percent of the people reading this post can agree on.