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Modern Mortician: Opening the First Not-for-Profit Funeral Home in the U.S.
31 Plays3 years ago
They say everything is better the second time around, which is why Jennifer is back on the Glam Reaper podcast for another episode with the Modern Mortician, Melissa Meadow.
This time, we’re in for another treat as Melissa lets us in on her current project: the very first not-for-profit funeral home and conservation burial park in the United States.
Her goal? To ease the burden off the shoulders of those who could not afford to give their loved ones sustainable funeral care.
But what exactly is the story behind Melissa’s newest venture?
Tune in to this intriguing conversation between the Glam Reaper and the Modern Mortician as they discuss that question, their vision for the funeral industry, and more.
“For me, I just wanna have a place to live and die.” - Melissa MeadowsLITTLE NUGGETS OF GOLD
- The story behind Melissa’s not-for-profit funeral home and conservation burial park
- How she plans to facilitate the funding of the project
- Her biggest WHY for the entire project
- A cool story about a place in Washington that has ties to Melissa’s maiden name, Unfred
Connect with Melissa Meadow
Website - https://www.theend.green/
Website - https://www.themodernmortician.com/
Instagram - @theend.green
Connect with Jennifer/The Glam Reaper:
Facebook Page - Muldowney Memorials: https://www.facebook.com/MuldowneyMemorials/
Facebook Page - Rainbow Bridge Memorials: https://www.facebook.com/rainbowbridgememorialsdotcom
Instagram - @muldowneymemorials & @jennifermuldowney
Twitter - @TheGlamReaper
Email us here: glamreaperpodcast@gmail.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Glam Reaper Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of the Glam Reaper podcast.
00:00:02
Speaker
I'm your host, Jennifer Muldowney, aka the Glam Reaper herself.
00:00:06
Speaker
And today I'm back talking to the modern mortician and we are talking not-for-profit funeral homes.
00:00:12
Speaker
Were they a thing before?
00:00:13
Speaker
Can they be a thing for the future?
00:00:15
Speaker
Let's find out.
Melissa's Whimsical Introduction
00:00:26
Speaker
Hi everybody and welcome to another episode of the Glam Reaper podcast.
00:00:30
Speaker
I'm your host Jennifer Muldowney and on today's episode I have the gorgeous and fabulous modern mortician back in the booth.
00:00:39
Speaker
Well in my booth, I'm in a little booth today.
00:00:41
Speaker
She's in a forest apparently.
00:00:44
Speaker
So I love it.
00:00:46
Speaker
Actually that would be quite cool.
00:00:47
Speaker
We might send you to a forest and let's do a podcast from there.
00:00:50
Speaker
Anyway, please welcome Melissa.
Daily Routines and Personal Growth
00:00:54
Speaker
Hi, good morning.
00:00:55
Speaker
Good morning.
00:00:56
Speaker
How are you?
00:00:57
Speaker
I'm clearly fresh out of the shower as I was just telling you about my 30 day yoga challenge, which I must be insane to be doing, but sure look.
00:01:03
Speaker
I don't know how you do it.
00:01:05
Speaker
I can't even do a five day meditation challenge in the morning.
00:01:09
Speaker
Get up and I'm like, no.
00:01:12
Speaker
Well, the meditation, they, that, they, they're hard.
00:01:16
Speaker
Meditations are hard.
00:01:17
Speaker
I, I think I can do like at one hour, I can even do a 90 minute hot yoga class, but five minute meditations.
00:01:25
Speaker
It's like nothing will start off the brain.
00:01:27
Speaker
Yeah, no, no, no.
Launching Not-for-Profit Funeral Homes
00:01:30
Speaker
But tell us, we're not here to talk about yoga.
00:01:32
Speaker
You have a very exciting new adventure.
00:01:34
Speaker
We had you on before, talking all things green and kermit, obviously.
00:01:39
Speaker
But we're focusing on, there's a new project on the horizon.
00:01:43
Speaker
in the works.
00:01:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:46
Speaker
I'm shocked at first, but also excited to say that I'm in the process of opening the first not-for-profit funeral home and conservation burial park for people and pets in Pacific County, Washington.
00:02:02
Speaker
Wow, that's a mouthful.
00:02:05
Speaker
Okay, as you Americans say which I love, let's unpack that.
00:02:12
Speaker
Okay, so oh my god, is that not, I don't even think there's that in its totality in the US, is there?
00:02:20
Speaker
Not at all.
00:02:22
Speaker
No.
00:02:22
Speaker
So tell us what that, obviously, okay, so it's humans and for pets, which is amazing because I think that's becoming more and more prevalent.
00:02:31
Speaker
People want to go with their pets and I don't know if that many cemeteries that allow it or, you know, they'll allow specific cases, aka if you're like Mariah Carey or somebody, you'll get privileges.
00:02:42
Speaker
But so that in and of itself is great.
00:02:46
Speaker
Tell us then more about the burial, the preservation and then the not-for-profit.
Community-Focused Funeral Industry
00:02:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:53
Speaker
So the initial goal was to have conservation burial land for people and pets where it would be affordable, because that was the biggest hindrance for families.
00:03:04
Speaker
When you gave them the options, if they wanted natural burial, the cost of a plot usually could price them out if, if finances were an option or a factor.
00:03:17
Speaker
Um,
00:03:17
Speaker
So I was like, okay, well, if we can create the conservation burial land where this land is protected for nature, for animals and for the people and pets buried there, if we knock that out, that's going to help people that can't afford, you know, final dispositions.
00:03:34
Speaker
But then I was like, I have started three funeral homes for three other people.
00:03:42
Speaker
Every time I've left that business, I felt gross about what transpired there from the time I joined to the time I left, where in the past, maybe corners were cut because of time, or I'm not paying you to do this, or the family didn't pay me for you to do this.
00:04:03
Speaker
I was like, let's take the money off the table, right?
00:04:06
Speaker
and make it a community project where the money from the funeral home benefits the conservation park and the funeral home for everyone.
00:04:17
Speaker
But then, you know, anybody can use it that's
Fundraising and Expansion Plans
00:04:20
Speaker
in the area.
00:04:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:24
Speaker
Amazing.
00:04:25
Speaker
I mean, it's like, you know, I joked a bit mind blown earlier just because, you know,
00:04:33
Speaker
It's not that everybody in the funeral space is profit conscious, but a not-for-profit is definitely highly unusual, if rare, if I don't know of another one, to be honest.
00:04:46
Speaker
How do you envision... So has this started, this project?
00:04:50
Speaker
The non-profit paperwork has been filed with the state and federally.
00:04:56
Speaker
So we are gearing up.
00:04:58
Speaker
I have every intention of being able to...
00:05:02
Speaker
have our first storefront by spring of 2023, and then hopefully land before the end of the year.
00:05:08
Speaker
Wow.
00:05:11
Speaker
And where are you getting your money from then?
00:05:15
Speaker
Are you fundraising?
00:05:17
Speaker
Is that... Yeah.
00:05:23
Speaker
So everything that comes from the Naughty Coffin gift shop that I have is funding this preliminary startup.
00:05:30
Speaker
costs, all the paperwork that has to be filed, you know, creating the website, different things like that.
00:05:37
Speaker
This next year up that we're doing, I'm actually doing a presentation to many community members coming up the 1st of December.
00:05:47
Speaker
And there are tax write-offs available.
00:05:51
Speaker
There are sponsorships available where they can have a section of a park named after them.
00:05:57
Speaker
So we're developing out all of these little options for the initial raise with the community.
00:06:04
Speaker
But then, you know, we still have our community of funeral directors online that are involved with this, which there's pretty impressive names too.
Project Information and Replication Plans
00:06:13
Speaker
I'll just send people to my website to learn who they are as, as it grows out.
00:06:18
Speaker
That's www.theend.green.
00:06:22
Speaker
But yeah, it's just really exciting to see how this is going to work.
00:06:26
Speaker
Um,
00:06:28
Speaker
There's possibility that some of the land could be donated to us from timber companies that are out here that have harvested that land and are regrowing new growth on it.
00:06:36
Speaker
There's so many opportunities out here.
00:06:38
Speaker
And the big goal is to take this model after it succeeds here and replicate it in other parts of the United States where it's needed.
00:06:46
Speaker
And so, I mean, and I'm sure part of what you're going to do in the future is going to have to be fundraising and fundraising.
00:06:55
Speaker
you know, the community events and stuff like that.
00:06:58
Speaker
I mean, it's, I guess what you're aiming for is something is, is a service for the community built by the community.
00:07:04
Speaker
Have you got your team in place?
00:07:06
Speaker
Are you sort of CEO and, and, you know, you're, you're going to get, you know, how, how have you planned, you know, your marketing?
00:07:19
Speaker
Is there going to be embalming offered at all?
00:07:22
Speaker
Or is that going to be off the table?
00:07:24
Speaker
It's actually not going to be offered at all.
00:07:28
Speaker
At some point when we have a full facility and not just a storefront, we may consider bringing in green embalming chemicals.
00:07:38
Speaker
Maybe.
00:07:40
Speaker
That's not even something I'm even concerned about at the moment.
00:07:44
Speaker
It seems like the tides are changing out in this direction where people aren't electing for that.
00:07:50
Speaker
And if they do want that, there is a funeral home that can provide that service.
00:07:55
Speaker
I'm definitely focusing on more family involvement, more sustainability, and I don't know how...
00:08:08
Speaker
I'm not sure the best way to describe this.
00:08:12
Speaker
Like, so a lot of people maybe that are in the funeral industry that have businesses are building up their wealth for generations so they can retire and do all this.
00:08:22
Speaker
For me, I just want to have a place to live and die.
00:08:26
Speaker
And the best way to do that is to build this community around myself where I can have that place to live and die.
00:08:33
Speaker
And then other directors or other death doulas or other people that feel the same way that I do that see maybe in their community, there could be more would get our support to go there.
00:08:45
Speaker
Right.
00:08:46
Speaker
Right.
00:08:47
Speaker
So this is kind of, this is really, um, I guess, uh,
00:08:53
Speaker
you know, not necessarily a pet project, but this is a project for
Personal Connections and Identity
00:08:57
Speaker
you.
00:08:57
Speaker
This is something your heart needs to kind of do to your purpose, if you like.
00:09:04
Speaker
That's kind of a twee word that's thrown around.
00:09:06
Speaker
It's kind of become trendy now, but this is your purpose.
00:09:09
Speaker
I mean, you've been advocating for green,
00:09:13
Speaker
for the longest time and for definitely as long as I've known you and so this I guess makes the obvious next step and to have the first non-profit there is no other non-profit in Ireland or in Ireland we're not in Ireland we're in the US good lord I'm clearly already at home in Ireland for Christmas there is no other not-for-profit funeral home in the US is there
00:09:34
Speaker
I don't think so.
00:09:35
Speaker
No, there's not.
00:09:36
Speaker
In fact, I found that information out at the National Funeral Director Convention from another attendee.
00:09:44
Speaker
There's only one in Australia.
00:09:45
Speaker
There are cooperative funeral homes in the U.S. And I definitely applaud People's Memorial for being one of them and leading the way.
00:09:54
Speaker
And yeah, it's just exciting to think that this is a first.
00:10:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:03
Speaker
But that makes it even more important to me because I remember years ago, other people saying, I'm going to do this.
00:10:10
Speaker
I'm going to make a not-for-profit funeral home.
00:10:12
Speaker
And then it never happened.
00:10:13
Speaker
So I was like, well, is it impossible for this to happen out here?
00:10:18
Speaker
What are the laws?
00:10:19
Speaker
And then I was like, it's not impossible.
00:10:21
Speaker
It's just takes a lot of freaking paperwork and it takes a lot of people.
00:10:26
Speaker
And I landed in an area where the people were,
00:10:30
Speaker
want this and the people are eager to get involved.
00:10:36
Speaker
Like it's just serendipitous.
00:10:37
Speaker
And then on top of that, you want to hear some crazy stuff?
00:10:40
Speaker
Always.
00:10:41
Speaker
All right.
00:10:42
Speaker
So yesterday I had to give my maiden name to someone that's in the community and
00:10:47
Speaker
And they go, did you know so-and-so?
00:10:50
Speaker
Turns out, out of all the people in the world, there's like maybe 30 unfreds out there, because when my last name was unfred before I changed it to meadow, there's a man out here that was very prominent in the community that was an unfred.
00:11:03
Speaker
It turned out to be my grandfather's cousin.
00:11:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:06
Speaker
No way.
00:11:09
Speaker
Out of all the places in the U.S., I could have landed to start this.
00:11:12
Speaker
It's crazy.
00:11:13
Speaker
That's the universe working mysterious ways.
00:11:16
Speaker
Why did you change your name?
00:11:17
Speaker
I don't think I actually ever asked you.
00:11:21
Speaker
So, Unfrid was my mother's last name.
00:11:23
Speaker
When she divorced my dad and they separated, she gave us her last name.
00:11:28
Speaker
So, growing up, people made fun of me for that last name.
00:11:30
Speaker
Humphrey Bogart was one I got, or Unfrid Bogart.
00:11:34
Speaker
Oh, gosh.
00:11:38
Speaker
So as I got older, I was like, you know, I'm already 43, knocking on 44.
00:11:45
Speaker
I was like, I don't plan on getting married to anybody and I want a cool name.
00:11:51
Speaker
So I'm going to give myself a cool name.
00:11:53
Speaker
And I didn't.
00:11:54
Speaker
So I changed my last name.
00:11:56
Speaker
So you actually just changed it.
00:11:58
Speaker
Like there's no, there's no attachment to medals.
00:12:00
Speaker
It wasn't your dad's last name or anything.
00:12:03
Speaker
Oh, it is very cool.
00:12:05
Speaker
The cool part to that name was growing up every Sunday, my grandparents would take us to a small neighboring town and we'd pass a little community called Meadow.
00:12:17
Speaker
And that's where I initially caught it.
00:12:19
Speaker
And I was like, man, I wish my name was Meadow.
00:12:22
Speaker
Well, now it is.
00:12:23
Speaker
Oh my God.
00:12:25
Speaker
I love America.
00:12:26
Speaker
America's wild.
00:12:29
Speaker
Be whatever.
00:12:30
Speaker
I love
Reinvention and Identity in America
00:12:31
Speaker
it.
00:12:31
Speaker
That's interesting because I was wondering that after I met you at the NFDA and
00:12:36
Speaker
you know we we you touch said that you um had changed and I walked away thinking god that must be you know her other parents name or something you know similar that's what I was kind of assumed um and because friends might have done that too and I thought oh isn't that so cool though that it's like emma
00:12:58
Speaker
it matches modern mortician yes also my company my events planning company is Muldowning Memorial so look at us M&M's all over the place M&M's M&M's party yes ooh with little Grin Reaper scythe on them yes you're what I'm getting you for the holidays that's going to be a that's going to be one of the fundraisers we do for you
00:13:24
Speaker
So you're based in Oregon?
00:13:27
Speaker
No, I'm in Washington, but right on the Oregon coast.
00:13:34
Speaker
The only thing that separates me from Oregon is the Columbia River.
00:13:36
Speaker
Like I can see Oregon, so I can serve the community of Oregon too.
00:13:42
Speaker
I mean, anybody in that area.
00:13:44
Speaker
But there are several really good funeral homes on that side of the river that they can just bring them to me.
00:13:49
Speaker
They can just come on over.
00:13:51
Speaker
I'll have to make a visit.
00:13:52
Speaker
I do have to...
00:13:54
Speaker
Oregon and Washington are, and Seattle actually, are the kind of three that are on my list.
00:13:59
Speaker
And so maybe 2023 is my year that I do another interstate trip.
00:14:05
Speaker
I did one very many years ago, nearly 20 years ago, I did a cross country and then the Pacific Coast Highway.
00:14:12
Speaker
So I think I need to do another one, but different, yeah, cover some different states.
00:14:17
Speaker
So we'll have to come and visit.
00:14:18
Speaker
Well, this is amazing news.
00:14:20
Speaker
Thank you so much for sharing it with us.
00:14:23
Speaker
We will watch this space.
00:14:24
Speaker
Please share all and any updates with us and we'll share it with you.
00:14:29
Speaker
Please go to, we'll put all the information, Naughty Coffins to help Melissa fundraise for this not-for-profit funeral home and preservation site.
00:14:39
Speaker
And yeah.
00:14:41
Speaker
And what was the website?
00:14:42
Speaker
It was www.theend.greens.
00:14:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:45
Speaker
And then I've already got an Instagram set up for it.
00:14:48
Speaker
It's at the end dot green.
Future Visits and Excitement for the Project
00:14:52
Speaker
Well, we shall watch this space.
00:14:54
Speaker
Thank you so much for joining us once again.
00:14:57
Speaker
I can't wait to have you out walking the space and doing your podcast.
00:15:00
Speaker
I can't wait either.
00:15:01
Speaker
We're going to have to make that happen.
00:15:03
Speaker
Definitely.
00:15:03
Speaker
Definitely.
00:15:04
Speaker
2023.
00:15:04
Speaker
I want to, I want to dig some earth.
00:15:08
Speaker
Yes, you can.
00:15:09
Speaker
Thank you so much, Melissa.
00:15:24
Speaker
you