Wilde thinks pulling back the curtain is healthy for a business that got a bad rep with the 1963 publication of Jessica Mitford’s scathing expose “The American Way of Death.” “The more information our families have, the better they’re going to be served,” Bates said.įuneral director Caleb Wilde picks up a deceased person from Brandywine Hospital in Coatesville, Penn. Robby Bates, president of the National Funeral Directors Association, said he had not heard of Wilde but after reading his blog declared him “the future.” Wilde’s father, Bill, says he think the blog is “cool” and jokes that his son is “our movie star.” His grandfather, Bud, who boasts that he still dresses most of the bodies for funerals, is less enthralled. To wit, a recent post about embalming contained this nugget: “In most states, what is pushed out of the body goes down the drain and out into public sewage. Now you know.” He gets hate mail from people who think he’s too irreverent - well, he did take a selfie in a casket, practicing his “death look” - or too open about industry secrets. A post-mortem photo he grabbed off the Internet and put on his Facebook page offended some followers, and when he griped about evening viewings, the daughter of a man who was about to have one sent a sheepish apology. He invented the hashtag #hearsebombing for snaps of the funeral home’s modified Chrysler Town and Country in incongruous locations, like the parking lot of Chili’s. Wilde says he began his own Twitter feed so he could reach a younger, hipper audience and “push the envelope” with breezy 140-character commentaries on amusing obituaries, tricked-out hearses, and headstones with unusual names. We will not be the source for #NOTTHEBABYDADDY on your Twitter feed.” Some entries read like Emily Post channeling the Grim Reaper: “If you’re attending a funeral, the best piece of advice I can give you is this: Turn your phone off,” “A family funeral is not a great second date” or “Don’t expect the funeral home staff to let you in on the family dirt. He started the blog about a year and a half ago and made enough of a splash that a cable TV channel asked him to submit an audition tape for a possible reality show about death rituals around the world that never got off the ground. The Wilde family has been in the death business since 1888, but Caleb didn’t have any plans to join them until he realized he couldn’t make ends meet as a humanitarian worker in Madagascar and came aboard 12 years ago. “It’s a tragedy not to think about death.” “Death gives you an important perspective on life,” the former theology student says.
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