Woman testifies that mother's wrongful embalming haunts her

Sun-Sentinel ^ | 3.3.05

[ambrose]

Woman testifies that mother's wrongful embalming haunts her

By Jon Burstein

Staff Writer

March 3, 2005

The daughter of a woman embalmed against her wishes testified Wednesday that she's haunted by the thought her mother's remains were used as a final exam by Lynn University funeral services students.

Sarah Anne Sanchez broke down as she described suffering from nightmares where her mother Madeline Post seems angry and confused. Despite a request by Post's husband that her remains be cremated in accordance with her religious beliefs, her body was embalmed at the Boca Raton mortuary school program before it was turned to ash.

"Until the day I die, I will remember what has been done to my mother's body," Sanchez testified in the civil case resulting from the handling of her mother's remains.

Sanchez and her stepfather, Jeffrey Post, are suing Professional Transport Systems Inc., the body-hauling business hired to transport the cancer victim's body, and company owner Joseph Damiano. Damiano had four decades' experience transporting, storing and cremating corpses in Florida.

The Post family alleges that Professional Transport Systems Inc. had been hired in November 2000 to drive Madeline Post's body six miles from a funeral home to a crematory, but instead held on to the body for 18 days, with a detour to the university. The university paid the transport company for use of the body, the family's attorneys argue.

Post's family reached confidential out-of-court settlements with Lynn University and Levitt-Weinstein Funeral Home before the case went before a Broward Circuit Court jury.

Damiano has denied knowing how Post's body ended up at the university, repeatedly saying in sworn statements that his company was "strictly a courier service."

[bk1000]

Reminds me of the Georgia mortician who, instead of cremating bodies, just stacked them up around the property for years. Hundreds of them. He is in a bunch of trouble.

[Feiny]

Having once identified a mason immediate steps must be taken to isolate him from the general public. Having accomplished that it is now possible to cure him of these unfortunate masonic tendencies through the use of behavioural psychotherapy.

[antonia]

[The bottom line is that it's not about necrophilia. It never was. It's about whether a body got embalmed or not, and unless it's a matter of religious belief, it's a stupid issue over which to have "nightmares."]


So you are of the opinion that because you believe that everyone else who doesn't also share your beliefs about death, must abide by your belief anyway?

The general tone, here in ‘FreeRepublic’, of lack of respect for the dead and their family is astounding, and indefensible.

I guess you feel that these students had a right to use any dead person’s body, as they feel fit. Why if someone is brain dead there should be a law that they must give all reusable parts to those who need them. Why stop there? Why wait until they are dead? You know it all anyway, why not take the parts when you know that the person is going to die anyway? Matter of fact, those who can not pay taxes, and have nothing else to profit your town with should be made to give an organ, just like they do in China, with those who do not toe party line.

[Xenalyte]

So you are of the opinion that because you believe that everyone else who doesn't also share your beliefs about death, must abide by your belief anyway?

I never said that. I don't find it necessary to preface my posts with "This is only my opinion, and I realize many of y'all don't share it, but . . ."

That's a waste of time and energy and bandwidth, because it goes without saying that what one posts, absent facts, is by definition one's opinion.

I would also thank you not to "guess" what I feel. You would be wasting valuable time that could be better spent - well, I don't know how you spend your time, but I have better things to do than argue with someone who takes my opinion to the ultimate extreme. It's a foolish tactic, and you know it.