What are the options for those who can't afford a funeral?
by Joe Tarr
While most families—with the help of life insurance benefits—will be able to pay for the funerals of their loved ones, what happens when they can't?
Most usually end up with at least some type of service.
Lynn Slocumb, who works in the county's finance office, says the county has a paupers funeral program to help families who can't pay for anything.
The county will pay a funeral home $200 for burial service, plus provide a vault ($140) and small marker ($10) at Mountain View Cemetery in East Knox County. For cremations, the county will pay the funeral home $350. (The cost to the county works out to be about the same, since cremated remains aren't typically buried).
Usually, it is the funeral home, not the family that approaches the county about the program, Slocumb says. Sometimes families only need part of the benefits because someone else may have donated the gravesite or the service. Last year, the county spent $17,000 on the program, she says.
Many funeral homes also offer their own programs for strapped families, providing basic services for less than $1,000. Several will charge little or nothing to bury infants or young children. "Most people who lose a child are young and are not going to have a lot of money. We provide these services as a community service," says Fred Berry III of Berry's Funeral Home.
"You hear all the time funeral directors saying, 'I had to give the funeral away because the family didn't have any money,'" says Fred Adomat of East Tennessee Mortuary Service. "Funeral homes are always helping out when a family has lost a young person or a baby. They don't have a choice. They want the repeat business. That funeral home better bury that baby at no cost."
When police cannot immediately locate next of kin, the body will remain at the Knox County Medical Examiners office in a cooler while police continue to search—for as long as a month.
If no family or close friends can be located, the police eventually will give the examiner's office the go ahead to donate the remains to the University of Tennessee for research.
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