Latest / On Deathcare / Averting a Crisis: Honnalora Hubbard on National Cremation Placement Day

Transcript

Averting a Crisis: Honnalora Hubbard on National Cremation Placement Day · On Deathcare

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, I am Tony Russo from On Deathcare,
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: and this is The Rest,
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: usually your weekly rundown of funeral service news,
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: except I'm off this week,
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: as I mentioned last week, what I did not mention last week.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: And what I'm about to mention in the show is I had booked a guest.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: So this is just my interview with the regional sales manager for Cold Spring, Honolura Hubbard.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: She's here to talk about National Cremation Placement Day, which is set for October 17th.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: And we're trying to get people to participate.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Lots of people already are.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to let her talk about it.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: I just wanted to give her a proper introduction.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: And here's the rest of the show.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I know I mentioned last week that there was no episode this week,
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: but I also booked Honolora Hubbard to be on the show.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: So she's going to be the show today.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, Honolora.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, thank you, Tony.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's good to be here.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason I wanted to have you on is one of
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: the things I've been doing is I've been cutting in like little briefs
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: about newsmakers when I can.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: And you have a big announcement that came out, not this week, but close enough.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to talk about it.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: So tell me about National Cremation Placement Day.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I would love to.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And excuse me if I get a little passionate.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: No, please do.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, because I do love it.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: So earlier this summer,
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: actually,
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: it's not really been that long,
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: but I think it was maybe in June,
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: the end of June, that we launched officially National Cremation Placement Day.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it really is a Cold Spring's gift to our entire profession.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what we know.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Approximately 25 million urns are sitting in homes today.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: 25% of the homes in the United States.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: So when you drive down your street and you count 1, 2, 3, 4,
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: and just keep doing that, and you're going to realize how many visually it becomes.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: But 25 million urns that are in homes that may or may not find a permanent place.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the number is shocking.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's really upsetting to Uh,
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: and for some personal reasons to me and,
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: and, uh, and I was like, we have to do something.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And what I knew we had to do, Tony, was we had to move this out of what I call it's relevant.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that people aren't being placed in cemeteries or permanent placement
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: or being immemorial.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it is, it's the fact that it's not newsworthy, right?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: In, in mainstream USA.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: But we were going to have to take the education there to be able to get it to
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: the people that need to hear it.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And those are those families with an urn sitting in the back of the closet or on a garage shelf.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a day that we could all gather together and have a big vision of what
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: if just a small tiny percent of a percent of those 25 million urns found
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: a permanent place on one singular day across the country.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: What could we do over time?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then how do we make that newsworthy in our community so we can really educate families?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that's sort of, that's my big dream.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I actually just did a story on large sales in cemeteries.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that I speculated on,
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: and nobody told me this, I made this up all in my little brain.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: For now, it's one in 25.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: What's it going to be in 10 years?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: We are on the verge, I claim, of a crisis.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be news when they all start showing up at Goodwills or back in the funeral homes.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Or there are so many places where...
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: Every now and again,
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: you'll see a story, hey,
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: we found this urn at a goodwill, or hey,
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: we found this urn in front of our funeral home,
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: or they're getting returned and things like that.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: But we're talking two generations worth of urns.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Once the baby boomers start to go in reality,
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: we're on the verge of kind of a I don't want to call it a crisis,
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: but people will know about it.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, people will know about it.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I was trying to tie that into,
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: you know, well,
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: if I've got 10 urns to put someplace,
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: then maybe I do need to look at like a family estate.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's so interesting that you kind of arrived at that on your own for a few reasons.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: One, we do find that in private estate sales,
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: more and more families are selecting niche-only interiors for
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: a full walk-in building.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: That that is definitely on the rise.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Very rarely do you see a private estate being installed in a cemetery
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: that there aren't niches involved now.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: But this is the part that I find interesting about it is,
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: do you remember a million years ago when cemetery sales was door to door?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: I do not, no.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: So it used to be that cemetery sales,
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: there was a salesman that went door to door and he sold spaces to people, right?
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's how it was 40 years ago.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And people bought, they didn't just buy a space or two, they bought like six or eight.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: They bought
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: the whole thing.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then we got away from that because we weren't transient at the time.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And people said, well,
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to buy the two that my husband and wife,
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: that husband and wife need,
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: but I'm going to buy like the six or eight so that just
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: in case my family needs them.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: They were thinking about their family and multigenerationally.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then we went through the phase where it is we just buy what we need.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I believe,
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: like you,
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: that with cremation,
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: it's going to push us towards a rise of going back to if I'm going to buy a space or
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: a niche, I might as well buy six or eight.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's the direction that we're going.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so to bring it back to the National Cremation Placement Day, Where did the idea come from?
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Is this your idea?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: How did you come up with it?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then how did you start to make it happen?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Who are some of the partners that Sure.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, it was, you know, I've been in the industry for a while.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so for a long time,
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: I've known the boomers are coming mixed with cremation rates are on the rise.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: And always trying to figure out how do we make peace with this?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: What do we do with this information?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe we already are in a crisis at this point.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: 150 years of cremation in this country.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're at the 150th anniversary,
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: and we've never made permanent placement and memorialization a priority.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: So we have 150 years of earns, potentially.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's scary.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then what we're going to add to it every year with the rates going high.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Then, during COVID,
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: because my family likes to do things the hard way,
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: We decided to have a whole lot of traumatic events that happened right around COVID.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: So first, my brother was diagnosed with glioblastoma and he passed.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he was the first person in my family ever to be cremated.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it was, my brother existed one day and the next he didn't.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: I got a phone call.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: There was no gathering.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: There was no sharing of the grief.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: There was no celebrating his life.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: It was like the next day, my big brother just didn't matter anymore in the world.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it was such a challenge to deal with that loss.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: So then just months later, my oldest sister was diagnosed with cancer.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: She passed within a matter of a couple of months.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing, cremated, no service, no nothing.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I kept trying to tell my family, we have to do something, right?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And they were like, no, this is what people do nowadays.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, this is what I do for a living.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't convince my family.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought...
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: Literally, didn't you hear what I was saying?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is not what we should be doing.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I know what I'm talking about.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're interrupting grief.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're all struggling.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was like, this is crazy.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: So then...
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: In the midst of that, and we had COVID and everything, and then I was diagnosed with cancer.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: And fortunately, I have a clean bill of health and I'm fully recovered and it's amazing.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: But just as I was finishing my treatment,
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: my other sister was diagnosed with cancer and died within weeks.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: So all four of us basically on the heels of one another and in the midst of,
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: you know, a global crisis at the same time.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: So when my sister passed, I said, now I've had enough.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: I can't do this again, right?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: I know the damage it's causing.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: I know the harm.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so I told my family, like it or not, we're doing it.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I flew back to Indiana.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: I led my sister's service.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: We went through the whole thing.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: We had a funeral dinner,
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: and I use that term loosely,
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: okay, because we were down at the bar next to the railroad tracks on the wrong side.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: But the whole family, the whole community came around us that I grew up in.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: They brought food in.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: We had a wonderful time.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it dawned on my relatives that this is what we'd been missing.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it was our opportunity to grieve all three of them and honor their lives
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: and spend time together.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we all felt they go, oh, we did need this.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, this is me, someone who, this is what I do all day, every day.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Couldn't convince my family.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: So what about the families that have no tie to anyone that has the education?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we're doing such harm by not educating them that we're creating grief
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: and compound grief and delaying the grief journey.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think any of us are okay with that.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I had this crazy idea.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I took it back to my team at Cold Spring to the marketing department.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I have this crazy idea.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I have this story way of capturing the whole thing and reconnecting emotion,
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: gaining agreement very quickly with anybody who's listening.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And to create urgency, there's an urn.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to do anything, right?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, so I have this story.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I told her the story and told her my idea.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And her immediate response was, I have tears.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: I have chills.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: I have my brother need to do something and we need to buy billboards.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: That was her reaction.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, so it's a good idea.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And she goes, yeah.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: And amazingly, the leadership at Cold Spring, we've been here for 127 years.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we know we owe a lot.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: To this profession.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we said, let's invest in this.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let's build a whole turnkey project and let's give it as a free gift to anybody
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: and everybody in our profession because it's the right thing to do.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of how we got here.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so what are some of the things that you can suggest to funeral homes like homes?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: Do I like an email blast to former cremation people to let them know that this is a thing?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: What are some of the, do you provide tools?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Do you provide suggestions?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: What can people get and what should they know?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah,
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: so at Cold Spring,
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: our marketing team,
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: plus we hired an outside marketing team just to get everything built.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And they're beautiful.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's really, really amazing.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: And we went through the National Archives and got National Day as an official day.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: But you can go look at all that information.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's the logo there.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: There are email scripts that you can put together, the templates we've written.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: There are postcards that you can download and put your logo on and print and send.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: There are all sorts of marketing materials.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: There is a PowerPoint to train your staff.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: There is a suggested day of service, what it might look like if you had a service.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's an event checklist.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's a follow-up Excel.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: We built everything you need to implement a full turnkey program.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: The marketing up to it, the day of, and then the follow-up and marketing afterwards.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: But this is where I'm going to say to start.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: On that site, you can download a press release and a story pitch idea for your local media.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing I would say is take this conversation to your community.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Don't leave it inside your walls.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Is get your local media involved.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Get some free marketing.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: When they understand that it impacts 25 million homes in the U.S.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: and 25% of the homes in their community, now it's relevant and newsworthy.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so get them talking about this as a crisis.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Invite them to help support and cover an event that you could have at your location
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: and And if you're a monument dealer,
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: then partner with a local cemetery and support them in it.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a funeral home, do the same thing.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: But we've built everything out that if you want to participate
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: in National Cremation Placement Day, we removed all the barriers.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: That is absolutely fantastic.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: And...
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: That was mostly what I wanted to know, a way to get it out.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: What didn't I ask though?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: Is there something I should have asked and didn't or something you thought you'd get
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: the chance to say, but I didn't provide it?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that it's interesting to,
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: as we're finding out as we're going into this first year,
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: and by the way, it's not too late.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can jump on board.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: I have communities launching it all over the place as of yesterday.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we have hundreds of communities that are doing this already in this first year.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: So, but I- Let me interrupt you with a question that you may not know the answer to.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a place where you're tracking that?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Do you like, will you be able to say we had-
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we actually on the website where you go to get the materials
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: on Cold Spring's website for National Cremation Placement Day,
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: down below you can register your event and you can go and you can see a lot of
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: the locations that have registered.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot that haven't put it on there yet.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so we do have knowledge of those too,
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: but some are choosing to go ahead and register it so their local media can see
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: that it's credible that they're participating.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: And also,
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: as families across the country can learn about it,
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: they can go on there and find a location near them.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry I interrupted, but I wanted to get that part out.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: No, I love it.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: But it's really cool to see how people are imagining it.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's sort of like You know,
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: at Christmas time, so many locations do a candlelight service or something, right?
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: A community service.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: So people are talking about it,
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: getting the word out, meeting with families now so they can select their niche.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: We have communities that I know one cemetery that is giving away 50 free spaces.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: For anyone that needs it,
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: just to make sure that their loved one ends up with a permanent place.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: So offering something free,
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: offering something discounted, and then of course having cremation things available.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: But then the goal is on October 17th,
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: This year that communities are going to have a service where there's going to be
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: a word spoken,
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: there's maybe going to be music,
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: there's,
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: their loved one is going to be in earned and their name is going to be read out loud
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: and they're going to be honored in a community service
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: because maybe your loved one died 25 years ago and who would come
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: to their funeral now, right?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Or their memorial service.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is an opportunity to let them find a permanent home.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: To be memorialized,
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: but also do it in such a beautiful and dignified way that it's a part of
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: a community event.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing is it helps people in your community realize they're not alone.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's important.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really, really excited about that.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is the first year we're just getting started.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is a new annual event.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so we picked October, Tony.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because I wanted people,
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to be when it was kind of quieter in,
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: you know, we can't do it like Memorial Day, right?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: We can't do it around another holiday.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I want it to be a time where we had enough that we could get the word out.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it's popped up in USA Today and all sorts of places, right?
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: We're trying to get it out there so it's public conversation.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then have the event,
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: get that covered,
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: because this is what I hope,
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: is that your local news will cover it and then someone will see it and go,
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: I missed it, I wasn't aware of it.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: But now going into the holidays, it's top of mind.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so Thanksgiving and Christmas,
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to talk to my family about why do we,
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: like Aunt Sally has six urns in her closet.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: We should probably do something.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so then hopefully it will continue, that conversation will continue.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the foot traffic coming into cemeteries is going to continue.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: That just got to be a building conversation, really.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's very exciting because that's exactly what I what I have
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: in my mind is like it turns into a regular event where people plan on spending
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: that day at the cemetery or or or Something like that.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: Have it in mind.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it's one of those things I'm wondering,
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure you are,
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: but I'm going to ask if anybody participates
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: and they let me know what their story is.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: It would be cool to collect the stories of this person did this
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: or this funeral home did that or this cemetery did this and get a sense of the kinds
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: of Yeah, I would encourage that.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: I hope that people do reach out to you and that they'll share their story with you.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we're looking forward to is we want to see
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: We came up with a great idea.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a deal, but it's a great idea, right?
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it's an answer.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's a solution.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's not, but it's, we're all a part of it.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: We all get to take ownership of it.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: And people need to reimagine it for their community of what will work
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: because no communities are the same.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the beauty of it.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: It is it kind of spurs other people's creativity in serving these families.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the best ideas are ahead of us and I cannot wait to hear them.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Excellent.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you very much for coming and talking to me and good luck with this.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, let's keep pushing this at least every year.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: I can't wait.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that five years from now we get together and we do this and we are just
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: so excited and celebrating.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've got to take it.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's my anniversary, so I'll never forget when it is.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's my my wedding anniversary is October 17th.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: So.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'll always know what other thing is going on on October 7th.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: So the whole world is just celebrating with you and your wife.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that's beautiful.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: We'll go and we'll receive our visitors at the local cemetery.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be fantastic.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, great.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, sir.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: The rest has been an On Deathcare production.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: It was written, edited, video, transmogrified, all the stuff by me, Tony Russo.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm still having a blast doing it.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for taking the time to spend with me this week.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I just want to remind you, if you participate in any way in this project, let me know.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: I would love to do a couple follow-up stories,
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: maybe a collection of how it went, some ways to do things.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: You can reach me at By Tony Russo at gmail.com.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: That is B-Y-T-O-N-Y-R-U-S-S-O at gmail.com.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for hanging out with me this week.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: I hope you had a nice Labor Day weekend.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: I hope I had a nice Labor Day weekend because it is September 2nd as I'm recording this.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks for hanging out and we'll check in with you next time.