MODERN FUNERALS
“At Junior Funeral Home in Pensacola, Fla., they know how hectic life can get. That’s why you can pull up to the drive-in viewing window, give your dearly departed the once-over, sign the handy register and get on to your next appointment. A spokesman admits it’s not a hit: “Most people haven’t fallen into this yet.” Still, it’s a sign of the times. The funeral business, once long on solemnity and short on innovation, is changing. Families, less tied to convention and determined to save money, now welcome–even demand–more options. And funeral directors are obliging with new ways to say goodbye. When Gay Gallaway buried her husband, Elmer, earlier this year, she didn’t want an impersonal, formal service. So Stephen C. Hammond, manager of the DeMoss-Durdan Garden Chapel in Corvallis, Ore., brought together an informal gathering of friends, a nondenominational minister – and a hubcap, instead of flowers – in tribute to Elmer’s locally renouwned collection. “It was about as nice a…
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