Peter Pringle's America: Morticians come out of the casket

AMID the laudatory post-mortems for Richard Nixon, I did find one I admired: the praise for his final wish to be buried in a plain wooden coffin. It takes considerable strength of will to fend off the high-pressure coffin salesmen who catch their customers in moments of weakness and distress. Undertakers possess an intimidating array of coffins ranging from a few dollars for a cardboard box to dollars 37,500 for a sleek solid copper casket with bejewelled handles.

One would have thought, in the age of cremation, that the top-of- the-line item was a thing of the past - people who choose cremation do not spend much on coffins. But America's undertakers, realising they are up against a 'sales problem', have banded together to fight off any discomforts in the American way of death.

Their plans for putting the nation to rest are laid out in two lavish publications, the American Funeral Director and the American Cemetery, both available to the public. Among the advertisements for coffins and crypts and 'quality metal vases guaranteed to last for 55 years', and alongside profiles of the 'Mortician of the Month', are articles on the state of undertaking by leading practitioners.

'This is the decade of change in the funeral service,' began Ray Loewen in American Cemetery. 'The decade when caregivers (the euphemism for undertakers) will have to become merchandisers and marketers . . . this decade will take the funeral service out of the closet and . . . bring respect and credibility to our proud and honourable profession.'

Mr Loewen knows what he is talking about. He is chairman and chief executive of the Loewen Group, the second largest publicly traded 'death care' company, with 543 funeral homes and 38 cemeteries in the US and Canada.

Traditionally, Americans have favoured burial to cremation. Except in New York City, there has always been plenty of space and families buy up plots well in advance. Astonishingly, a recent survey commissioned by the undertakers found that more than half of Americans over 30 years of age own a cemetery plot or grave site.

In America, cremation has never become the preferred choice that it has in other industrialised nations; in Britain, 70 per cent of the population is cremated. By contrast, the figure for America is only 20 per cent, rising by about 14 per cent a year. This rise means a huge loss of revenue from the sales of fancy coffins and other mourning services.

In an article in the American Funeral Director, Tom Ward of the Aurora Casket Company advised: 'The game has changed. Will the pendulum ever swing back, like clothing styles? Probably not, because cemeteries will be selling space by the inch instead of by the foot. And when you buy land by the acre, that's good business.'

To survive in the new world of cremation, he said, undertakers must 'construct a meaningful memorial service'. What is important to understand, said Mr Ward, is that 'the human species has an inner need to memorialise' - the new buzz word of the trade. That means providing mourners at a cremation with all the services, including counselling, that are normally provided at a burial.

'There are six magic words that people love to hear: 'Tell me more about your daddy',' advises Mr Ward. 'Then listen and ask genuine, sincere questions . . . You see, we are not just burying or cremating bodies. We are constructing a memorial service that will complement a life that was lived . . . Memorialisation is our future.'

Memorialisation was the theme at the end of last year's 75th Annual Convention of the Cremation Association of North America. In a seminar entitled 'The Challenges and Opportunities of Providing Caskets for Cremation', John Greiwe, of Batesville Caskets, pointed to the opportunities to be exploited among cremation mourners. 'Research suggests that they aren't aware of their options,' he said. 'They don't know what to expect and if they're distressed it's very difficult for them to make decisions and very easy for them to get in and out (of the funeral parlour) . . . We need to be sure that the cremation customer has a true perception of the need and value of the funeral service.'

Also at the seminar was George Foley of the York Group of funeral companies. He spoke of the 'core belief that anchors the entire business of the funeral, disposition and memorialisation' (viewing the dead body). That is the only way the mourners can come to terms with what has happened, he said. 'If we ever lose that 'core belief',' said Mr Foley, 'I'll buy stock in psychiatric care companies because that business will grow.'

What the undertakers call the 'middle ground' is even now being constructed in the form of 'memorial centres', where the body is taken prior to burial or cremation. There are no hearses or limousines. There is a coffin, perhaps even a really expensive one, rented for the occasion, and the emphasis is on a positive and uplifting farewell, a celebration of a life rather than a death.

Isn't this called a wake? Haven't wakes been held successfully for many generations by many nationalities? Isn't the pop psychological need for a 'memory picture' of a dead person really an even greater need for the marketeer in the embalming and make- up business? Memory pictures, memorialisation, memory centres: all fads in a business that can truly never die. In the American Cemetery magazine, an article attributed to Houston B Quick from California claims his 'back to basics' formula will 'increase market share and improve cash flow'. Mr Quick does not reveal how he will deal with the dead, but of one thing you can be sure: the formula includes a plain wooden coffin.