All too real for us. IN 1993, the Missouri flooded over an old cemetery in Hardin, MO leaving caskets floating downriver towards the Mississippi. Over 150 were never recovered.
This can happen with any box where air can become trapped, but modern needlessly expensive caskets that are basically hermetically sealed do not help matters.
If you look closely at the casket in the photo, the end that is facing us has two knobs on it just below the lid. The knob on the left is the locking device and the knob on the right unscrews to reveal a clear tube. Batesville Casket and other manufacturers call this a memory tube. Your funeral director is supposed to fill out the form that comes in that tube with all of the deceased's info: name, funeral home name, date of death, etc. The tube is accessible without opening the casket. That tube is specifically for this scenario- a lost casket.
All too real for us. IN 1993, the Missouri flooded over an old cemetery in Hardin, MO leaving caskets floating downriver towards the Mississippi. Over 150 were never recovered.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.stltoday.com/look-back-great-flood-of/image_70076495-30a6-52fa-aa06-7e240b63f21e.html
(This is less than 10 miles from my house)
Wow.
DeleteThis can happen with any box where air can become trapped, but modern needlessly expensive caskets that are basically hermetically sealed do not help matters.
ReplyDeleteNote to self : Get buried in a simple pine box.
And deprive the birds of a good meal?
Deletehttp://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2010/04/tibetan-sky-burial.html
If you look closely at the casket in the photo, the end that is facing us has two knobs on it just below the lid.
ReplyDeleteThe knob on the left is the locking device and the knob on the right unscrews to reveal a clear tube.
Batesville Casket and other manufacturers call this a memory tube. Your funeral director is supposed to fill out the form that comes in that tube with all of the deceased's info: name, funeral home name, date of death, etc. The tube is accessible without opening the casket.
That tube is specifically for this scenario- a lost casket.
Thank you. Comments like yours help me learn something every day.
DeleteThis is why New Orleans and similar ecosystems are so populated by spooky above-ground tombs (the so-called "Cities of the Dead").
ReplyDelete