School Bus Drivers Final Stop

Hindt Funeral Home of Grand Meadow, Minn. gave Glen Davis a personalized casket that Davis loves.

Here’s part of the story from Matthew Stolle of Post-Bulletin of Rochester:

Many of the best years of Glen Davis’ life were spent driving a school bus for Grand Meadow (Minn.) Public Schools.

He drove bus for 55 years. There was hardly anything about it he didn’t like. He loved the kids. And when he finally decided to call it quits a decade ago, he wasn’t sure it was the right decision.

So, Davis draws comfort from the thought that when he makes that final bus trip — the one that all of us will make one day — his final resting place will be in a casket decorated like a Grand Meadow school bus, right down to a painted red stop sign on the side and the No. 3, the number of the first bus he drove when he started out in 1949.

“Oh, I loved it,” Davis said, recalling the moment he first laid eyes on it. “My family was a little leery of it, it being a little bit personal.”

His daughter, Lisa Hodge, recalled initial thoughts of disquiet that a casket adorned as a school bus might seem a bit macabre.

But she found herself “pleasantly surprised” when she first saw it.

The craftsmanship was so well done and her dad’s response was so overwhelmingly positive that she soon saw it as he did.

“He’s just so proud of it,” Hodge said. “He (drove) bus for all those years. I bet he’s driven three generations in some families.”  READ MORE HERE.

There’s a huge “personalization” movement in the funeral industry.  We have personalized urns, personalized caskets, personalized EVERYTHING.  I’m pretty skeptical of the push as it seems to be a way for both attempt relevancy and gain better sales.  Many of the “personalized” products border cheesy and cheap and the ones that aren’t cheesy and cheap are exorbitantly expensive.

But what the Hindt Funeral Home did for Glen Davis is good.  They were able to find a key component of his life and make it into something that Glen himself appreciated.  And no doubt everyone who sees Glen in that casket (when he dies) will appreciate how it represents his life.

When personalization is thoughtful and heartfelt, it’s both meaningful and helpful.