Sad but true
September 12, 2003
Walking into assignments with wild preconceptions, while sometimes unavoidable, is never a good thing. You usually end up discovering just how ordinary extraordinay things can be.
The latest court case involves a funeral director who, through gross abuse of his duties, left bodies laying about for an extended period of time. My first thought was, "What a sick and twisted bastard!" But as I heard the evidence I came to realize the man wasn't a psycho, he was just a horrible businessman with a big heart who criminally abused his responsibilities. He couldn't afford to take care of the bodies because he gave away services to people who couldn't afford them.
Sometimes truth *isn't* stranger than fiction, it's just more sad.
Photo by DANIEL MILLER
A tear runs down the cheek of Funeral home owner Henry Harden during his hearing in the Lucas County courthouse in Toledo, Ohio, Friday, Sept. 12, 2003. Harden plead no contest to 8 counts of abuse of a corpse and one count of theft.
