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By DARLA L. PICKETT
Staff Writer 12/03/2007

enlarge Staff photo by David Leaming

LOW COST: Peter Neal of Crosby and Neal Funeral Home in Guilford beside an inexpensive fiberboard casket in foreground and a cardboard alternative container that is used to put a body inside for cremation. The items are frequently used for burials of deceased person who can not afford a more expensive disposal of the remains.

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Ann, an elderly woman who died alone in her Piscataquis County home about three months ago, had no living relatives in the state.

Her husband had died several years before. A daughter in Massachusetts refused to pay the funeral costs, as did the town because the woman owned a small piece of property.

Crosby & Neal Funeral Homes in Greenville, Guilford, Dexter, Corinna and Newport, ended up absorbing more than $1,000 of the cost of her funeral.

For Peter B. Neal, a certified funeral service provider with Crosby & Neal and spokesman for the Maine Funeral Directors Association, the story was among the saddest cases of indigent burials in his 34-year career.

This is a tale, while not repeated every day in Maine, that is repeated often enough and likely will be told more often as people live longer, in many cases outliving their siblings and in some cases their children.

Maine doesn't have so-called "potter's fields" anymore, but towns and funeral directors do end up picking up the funeral tab for people who have no family or resources.

During the 2007 financial year Maine municipalities helped bury 192 people, at a cost of $200,809, according to Cindy Boyd, general assistance program manager for the state Department of Health and Human Services.

Boyd said each town fronts the money for burial or cremation of poor people as part of its general assistance program and then seeks reimbursement from the state.

This year, the state reimbursed towns $126,510, a little more than half the total.

The state gives back 50 percent in most cases, but a handful of towns often get reimbursements of up to 90 percent when they meet a threshold based on a formula involving the town's valuation.

ESTABLISHING NEED

Every town has to adopt an ordinance for pauper burials. Many use one of the model ordinances developed by the Maine Municipal Association.

Mary Jane Clifford, Skowhegan's general assistance administrator, said she handled seven burials in the last seven years. In most cases, she said, the basic amount was $840. Her office determines who is covered.

"It is higher than that if a family requests a funeral, as opposed to just cremation," Clifford said. "I did do one earlier that the family, because of religious reasons, didn't believe in cremation. The policy is to respect the family's wishes."

Clifford said towns are becoming more and more involved in burials of people without means.

"People seem to be outliving family, they don't take care of each other like they used to. They're all struggling with their own problems and just don't have the spare money," she said. "It probably is going to become more of a problem."

Sometimes, Boyd said, a family member may pay a share of the funeral cost and the town pays the rest.

The state now caps its contribution for a funeral at $1,125, though local general assistance administrators may allow for additional costs, including a cement liner, opening and closing the grave and a burial lot in the least expensive section of the cemetery.

"For cremations, $785 is the most (towns) can pay, plus up to $50 for an urn," Boyd said. "Some want (the person) to be buried, so it's the least expensive plot and transportation costs to the crematorium. Some people don't want an urn, they have their own container they want to keep (the ashes) in."

Usually, she said, families discuss the situation with the funeral director, so the family doesn't ask for more than the town is willing to cover.

WHO PAYS?

Family members who live in Maine are expected to help pay for a funeral if they have the financial means, according to Boyd.

"This is supposed to be for the truly indigent, who have no resources for burial," Boyd said.

The law establishing which family members are responsible changed this Sept. 20 to remove siblings from the list.

Liability now rests only with spouses, and blood relatives including parents, children and grandchildren who live in Maine or own property in Maine.

"I think often families will find a way to take care of their loved ones," Boyd said.

"We usually deal with the ones who have nobody. They die in a nursing home and there is no family left or they may be living alone in an apartment and people find them."

When the town doesn't take over, funeral directors are left to handle it the best they can

Neal said he followed protocol for general assistance in the case of the woman in Piscataquis County, but the town would not pay because she owned a house lot and a dilapidated camp at the edge of town. Because she had an asset, the town was not liable for funeral expenses.

"They told me what I should do is go to the court and become personal representative of her estate, get hold of the property and sell it," he said.

Neal said the funeral home paid out of its own pocket to avoid a long legal hassle.

"I talked to the daughter and she told me that her mother told her when she was 4 that she didn't love her, and gave her away," Neal said. "When you think about a child being four years old and your mother gives you away, it makes my hair stand on end."

The problem with charity funerals, Neal said, is that the state determines what the charges can be.

He said when people run out of food or fuel, they are given a voucher and the business makes its normal profit. Neal said his business pays for a pauper funeral about every two years.

Neal said the Maine Funeral Directors Association initiated the new law eliminating siblings because finding them and assessing their ability help pay is difficult.

"Willingness is immaterial; it is based on capability," Neal said. "Sometimes it is nearly impossible. The law may say a person is legally responsible, but there is no teeth to it. You would have to hire an attorney and sue him.

"It is becoming an increasing concern to many of us in the field. The rules make it difficult to collect from a peripheral relative," he said. "The welfare roll is increasing and money is tighter for the towns."

FUNERALS FOR POOR NOT DIFFERENT

Neal said funerals for the indigent are handled much like any other, either by cremation, burial on land, burial at sea or removal from the state.

There sometimes is a delay until the responsible person is decided.

Most cremated bodies are buried on a family lot: "We try to encourage that. It gives a focal point. It's nice, ten years from now, to say 'Here is where Grandma is buried.' It gives you some roots."

Neal said it is illegal to scatter ashes where permission has not been obtained.

"You can't scatter on public property, nor fresh water lakes or rivers or, as some people have done, dump ashes out of an airplane over Mount Katahdin," he said.

Neal agreed that dying alone without family and money can be sad, but it is not the worst thing that can happen.

"It's always sad to see someone on the fringe of society, to see how unhappy their life has been and how their death is as unhappy as their life was," Neal said.

"But sadness is relative. For me, the saddest funeral is that of a child. The three-year-old who drowned in the well is far sadder than the 85-year-old who died without means."

Darla L. Pickett -- 474-9534, Ext. 341

dpickett@centralmaine.com

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