Funeral Home Offers 'Beds' for Loved One



BROOK PARK, Ohio - They take the concept of resting in peace seriously at the Humenik Funeral Chapel.



The chapel offers a bedroom-like setting — a bed and two end tables — instead of where the casket would usually be laid out.

Owner Joe Humenik opened his own funeral home in suburban Cleveland five years ago after spending 10 years in the business. He first tried out the "reposing bed" for someone very close to him — his mother.

He had observed at countless funerals how mourners awkwardly approach the casket, say their goodbyes then retreat to the seating area.

But when his mom was laid out in a reposing bed, people stood nearby throughout the visitation.

"It was a real phenomenon. People took chairs and were sitting around the bed. It was just amazing," he said.

Donna Smith, 55, attended a funeral two years ago in which her neighbor was laid out in a bed.

"It is like walking into their bedroom," Smith said. "It's just lovely. That's the way I want to go."

So what's next? Maybe laying out an individual in a favorite chair or recliner?

"If a family requested it, I would use a recliner," Humenik said.

Huh! Just close my casket!

if they put me in a casket my bones will be bouncing outta that thing looking for some booty to beat !!


cremation please

I want to be propped up in a chair with my laptop on my lap and a cup of tea by my feet.

Or swinging in a hammock on a beach with two guys either side fanning me.

No makeup, no anything.

Just burn my casing, and scatter me to the four winds.. Let me be free!

Okay, this is going to sound totally silly but I don't like either cremation or casket because of the risk of being declared dead without actually being dead:

Casket - I'm claustrophobic! What if I would wake up six feet under?

Cremation - Kind of hard to correct your error afterwards if you burn me alive.

So I suppose this bed thing doesn't sound so bad after all...

Mach said:

me too. I still kick myself for not speaking up when they were wondering what to do with my mom.

I want my body to be free with my spirit.

burn my dead ass up and serve me over nachos. i don't want my dead body to take up space, and i don't want my funeral to be in some grody funeral home. stuff my business in a coffee can and take it to a bar so people can at least get drunk and whatnot, or if they didn't like me when i was alive, they can use my urn for an ashtray and say at least i served SOME kind of purpose.

Anxiety said:

There is this Bar here called Hole in the Wall...it's actually one of my favorites despite the name. A friend of mine was in there drinking and shootin the shit with the bartender and he asks my friend if he'd like to have a drink with the owner. my friend said he would and the bartender brings out this urn and they both have a shot and "ting" on the urn.

I thought that was cool.

superspaceboy said:

i have an ex-boss who, whenever she would travel somewhere new, would take a vial from her deceased friend's ashes and spread them wherever the destination was, so there'd be a little bit of her friend all over the world.

i thought that was interesting.