From cradle to grave: There was something for everyone alive and otherwise at the Chicago funeral directors convention
The National Funeral Directors Association annual convention, which happens every October, and has met for more than 140 years, was not a solemn gathering. There was a small bar off to the side, between the booth for Southern Funeral Director Magazine and a casket maker. I saw women dressed as flowers trying to drum up attention for an AI-assisted database for funeral homes. I saw a man take bites of his hot dog between answering questions about cremation niches, those roomy holding spaces for urns. Hubert McQuestion, vice president of a longtime family-owned vault company, told me he slipped a check for $2 million into his late father’s jacket pocket, to be buried with him for eternity, though: “He still hasn’t cashed it.”
The Eagle Coach Company displays a hearse that carries an urn, Oct. 29, 2025, during the National Funeral Directors Association Convention at McCormick Place. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
A natural leaf casket made from water hyacinth on display, Oct. 29, 2025, during the National Funeral Directors Association Convention at McCormick Place. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Love Urns products are on display Oct. 29, 2025, during the National Funeral Directors Association Convention at McCormick Place. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Seth Viddal walks by his Natural Funerals device that can turn a body into a soil, Oct. 29, 2025, during the National Funeral Directors Association Convention at McCormick Place. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Love Urns products are on display, Oct. 29, 2025, during the National Funeral Directors Association Convention at McCormick Place. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
I learned that as a person is being prepared for their casket, an old-school yardstick is typically used. I learned that we are getting larger and sometimes cemeteries need to dig multiple plots to hold just one newly dead person. I was told of a man so large that he was laid to rest in a septic tank.