Over Thanksgiving break of 2007, I had the opportunity to spend some time with the local funeral director of Lazear- Smith Funeral Home in Warwick, NY.
November 24th, 2007 – Funeral Director Roger Vander Plaat checks his schedule and replies to his email before beginning his day at the Lazear-Smith & Vander Plaat Memorial Home in Warwick, NY last Saturday. As the fourth generation in a family funeral directors, Vander Plaat has been managing funerals for 20 years.
November 24th, 2007 – At left Funeral Director Roger Vander Plaat told fellow mortician, Tom Barett, that it was “not a bad a day to go to heaven,” during the funeral of a Paulist priest at the Mount Paul retreat in Oak Ridge, NJ last Saturday.
November 24th, 2007 – At center Funeral Director Roger Vander Plaat takes a call while he supervises grave diggers Paul Collins (left) and Tim Becker, as they lower the casket of a Paulist priest at the Mount Paul retreat in Oak Ridge, NJ last Saturday. Vander Plaat is also responsible for cleaning and embalming the bodies of the deceased for wakes before burial.
November 24th, 2007 –During the supervision of the Paulist priest’s funeral, Funeral Director Roger Vander Plaat receives a call from a widow who’s husband recently passed away at Mount Paul in Oak Ridge, NJ last Saturday. During a death Vander Plaat will help counsel grieving families and is available to them at any time.
November 24th, 2007 –While in his car Vander Plaat takes notes of the departed individual as he talks to the widow in Oak Ridge, NJ last Saturday. He stated, “These notes will help me to keep track who this person was for the obituary.”
Images of a pillow fight celebrating International Pillow Fight Day in Downtown Boston organized by Banditos Misteriosos, an area group that promotes "flash mob" events.
March 22, 2008 -- Casey Cyr, 15, of Londonderry High School came from New Hampshire to participate in the pillow fight in Copley Square, Saturday.
March 22, 2008 -- According to Banditos Misteriosos, about 900 people participated in the pillow fight in Copley Square, Saturday. Some other cities that celebrated Pillow Fight DAy included Beijing, London, Stockholm.
March 22, 2008 -- James Simoneau of Boston University, attempts to hit a fellow participant during a pillow fight in Copley Square, Saturday.
March 22, 2008 -- Occasionally pillows would burst and create a blizzard of feathers at the International Pillow Fight held in Copley Square, Saturday.
