I am attending the Utah Funeral Director’s Convention in Salt Lake City this week and it’s been a great convention so far. This morning I sat for two hours and listened to Doug Gober, Executive Director at Matthews International give a fantastic presentation on the state and potential future of the funeral industry. If you’ve never heard Doug speak – close your eyes and think of a red-haired Dave Ramsey.

I started my funeral career in the old days when graves were dug with a shovel! I was 15 and, if memory serves, the fee for opening and closing a grave was $125.

Now at 15 years old, I was a good soldier and I marched and did as I was told. So as I worked through that long, hot, humid South Mississippi summer I was paid $50 for each grave using my pointed shovel to dig the grave…