Letter to the Editor

No eagle statue? No problem

Sunday, March 15, 2009

To the Editor:

Congratulations to the Moore Funeral Home on your Pursuit of Excellence Award!

The article in The Brazil Times was quite nice. For the past eight years, we have had a friendly competition with Rob and Vanetta Moore for the POE award. We are the only two funeral homes in the Wabash Valley that strive to meet the criteria for this national award so of course, we have always been proud to be a Pursuit of Excellence first.

My husband Chuck, has always been the driving force for us to make sure our deadlines have been met and our criteria have been completed. He also is the person that has been the most proud of all those eagle statues in our building! (That is the token you receive with the award, a big eagle).

Well, as most of you know, Chuck collapsed on April 30 with a dissecting thoracic aneurysm and is now paraplegic. During the time we would have normally been preparing our documents for the Pursuit of Excellence Award, we were caring for Chuck.

Also, our wonderful staff here at the funeral home were caring for the families we serve in their most difficult time of loss.

As Soni Henry said, "the families we care for during their loss should not receive less care and compassion due to our own crisis."

Our ninth POE will hopefully come this next year, when we resume our friendly competition with Moore Funeral Home.

I will admit, my priorities have always been here locally with my family, the families we serve and our community. I have never traveled the world or worked for international companies.

I have always been a wife, mom, nurse and caregiver. National awards and the like aren't too much of a priority for me, especially after this past year. Prayers and hugs from our friends have become much more important than eagle statues!

God Bless you all!

Susie French,

Brazil