The ARRANGEMENTS

My wife was making funeral arrangements for one of our deceased parents at the local funeral home. Fortunately, the representative had a very good sense of humor, as my wife certainly does - she is from Louisiana and Texas and armed with dry humor that goes a long way in especially Texas, as it is infectious. • At the conclusion of the paperwork and arrangements were made for the cremation and selection of the urn for the ashes, as was his job, he asked if she had made future funeral arrangements for her husband and herself. • She smiled and assured him, that they had actually talked this over, agreeing to purchase a blue burn barrel, as both she and her husband like the color blue, not to mention the fact that in lieu of the two thousand dollars it cost for cremation services, the survivor could be thrifty and do the cremation at home saving nineteen hundred dollars, the new barrel costing less than $100 dollars. The additional plus side, when the cremation was over, they could continue its normal use and then when the other one passes on, once again, it could be used, now that is thinking ahead, Louisiana style-she then smiled. • After the funeral director composed himself and caught his breath, he began to laugh Louisiana style, as he too was from the south. The secretary came into the room and stood there for a minute listening to the laughter, as this certasinly was not normal in the serenity of a funeral home. She left, sort of satisfied that her boss had not totally lost his mind, perhaps, but the customer might have.