The High Cost of Dying
Sometimes, a funeral goes as smoothly as a family could hope for:
Jack Sanders had talked frequently with his mother, Joyce, about her funeral plans. A frugal woman, she disdained high prices for anything. She wanted cremation and a simple burial with a graveside service and a few friends. No big fuss. No viewing.
So Sanders, 52, of New Sharon, Maine, arranged for precisely what she wanted when his mother died in August at age 68. Chuck Kincer, owner of a number of funeral businesses in Maine, did everything to specifications and charged $1,250. “It was perfect,” Sanders said after the graveside service at the family plot.
But other times, things spin out of control: