Funeral home takes new approach to services
Caruth-Hale Funeral Home has taken a new approach to funeral planning by taking its personalization services to new levels never before seen in Hot Springs.
Two years ago, Robert Arledge, the funeral home’s president, took on a new venture he describes as “the missing key” to funeral services. Gone are the days when funerals were a solemn, sorrowful affair. Now, families can celebrate their deceased loved ones’ lives in the manner that they lived in.
“We’ve changed our chapel up, got rid of the pews, got rid of the doom and gloom,” Arledge said.
He said at Caruth-Hale they believe every life has a unique story that should be shared. The funeral directors begin by gathering information about the deceased individual’s life through a casual conversation with the family.
“We find their likes, their dislikes, what they like to eat, what they like to do,” Arledge said.
After gathering the information, a team sits around a table and discusses how best to personalize the service by using visual tools and incorporating music, tastes and even smells into the visitation and service.
“We’re putting your mom’s, your dad’s, your loved one’s life on display. If you say, ‘My mom liked rock ‘n’ roll,’ or, ‘My mom liked Led Zeppelin,’ we’ll have Led Zeppelin playing in the funeral home,” Arledge said. “We can turn the music up as loud
so conversations tend to go on literally above my head.”
Marion has mustered a slate of candidates with backgrounds in psychiatry, Dr. Nancy Hornstein, District 5; hospitality management, Courtney McKee, District 9; community organizing, Esther Dixon, District 3; crisis intervention administration, Linda Ragsdale, District 11; and health and fitness/property management, Anne Showalter, District 10. Together they represent a mosaic of feminine perspective Marion said is essential to shaping policies that consider all perspectives.
“Woman are more likely to be focused on family issues and how things directly affect the household,” Marion said. “Studies repeatedly show that if you have two or three women on a government body or board of directors it functions better.”
Hayden Shamel, the Democratic candidate for the District 4 U.S. House race and chairwoman of the party’s county committee, said women’s familiarity with household finances have attuned them to the economic anxieties confronting families.
“Women have that checkbook, and they know bills have to be paid and what bills have to be paid,” Shamel, an English and Spanish instructor at Lakeside High School, said. “They more than anybody know what it’s like to need money at the end of the month.
“And I think women are natural collaborators and are in a unique position to get things done.”
While most decisions affecting family dynamics are beyond the quorum court’s mandate, Marion said budget authority JPs wield could be used to address the social pathologies that sow family dysfunction and strain county finances.
“If you think about the money we’re spending on law enforcement, detention and legal proceedings to deal with problems that have their roots in the household, it’s staggering,” she said. “More attention needs to be paid to giving kids and families and single parents the support they need, paying that money up front where down the road it will do some good.
“Right now, we’re paying that money on the back end, for law enforcement and detention. It’s a matter of public safety that falls squarely in the purview of what the quorum court can do.”
Marion said committing to the long-term funding of the Garland County Health Unit would improve outcomes for at-risk families, a commitment she said should include a contractual agreement between the county and city that ensures continued funding for a facility that serves as a lifeline for much of the community.
Marion said uncertainty about local funding for the health unit in 2016 and 2017 motivated Dixon, the Difference Makers of Hot Springs executive director, to seek her District 3 seat.
While some of the women needed convincing, particularly in light of the dim prospects county Democrats have confronted in recent election years, Marion said McKee needed no prompting. She’s running against four-term Republican incumbent Matt McKee, who is of no relation, for the District 9 JP seat.
“She walked in immediately after the 2016 election and said, ‘I’m going to run. Put me somewhere,’” Marion said. “All the candidates are newbies. They’ve never run for anything before. I think they’re showing courage by standing up to represent those people who share their convictions.
“We have a great field of candidates. The headline when the filing period closed was we didn’t have a single person file for countywide office, but I wanted to get people into entry-level positions where they’d be making policy decisions as opposed to administrative decisions.”
Democrat Kallen Peret’s candidacy for the District 24 state House race has also been borne along by the wave that’s brought women to the fore of the national political discussion. An e-commerce marketing director, she’ll face Republican incumbent Bruce Cozart and Independent Party candidate J. Kent Percefull in the Nov. 6 general election.
“Kallen is another young woman who is disturbed by the Republican agenda and came to us wanting to run on the Democratic ticket,” Marion said. “She has the education and leadership background to be a challenger for state office. I think Kallen is going to be a real contender in that race.
“All together, it’s going to be an exciting year for Garland County politics.”
April 23 is the voter registration deadline for the May 22 preferential primaries and nonpartisan general election. Early voting begins May 7.