Supposedly true story told to me by a local undertaker in the late 1960's.
He told of the time shortly after he had just finished mortician college and was assistant funeral director of a large funeral home in New York State.
At the time, some furniture manufacturers were expanding their market and offering DIY casket kits at very reduced prices by comparison to a regular casket. Funeral homes sold these as an alternative to families with limited funds and the funeral homes assembled them.
One such kit was selected by a bereaved family consisting of the mother, daughter and son of the deceased father and husband.
The DIY kits were not especially structurally sound but they served the purpose.
At the graveside service, during the lowering of the casket, the bottom dropped out and contents slammed into the depths of the hole. Workers scurried to make things as right as possible, the assistant director herded the immediate family away from the gravesite, into the limousine and drove away.
The immediate thought of the assistant director was of being sued and he knew he should try to establish the thoughts of the family and did so by commenting, "well, I guess we let Dad down a little hard today."
The quiet seemed endless and began to concern him when the son leaned over and said, "not hard enough for that sunofabitch," and everyone broke into laughter.
The assistant funeral director said he had a pretty clear idea of how the family felt at that point and breathed a sigh of relief.
I asked, and he did tell me, they never brought suit against the funeral home nor the DIY casket company.
