Text and Photos
By Shari Benyousky
Guest Columnist

Column Note: This is the 31st column in the Diners and Dives series in which a small group of Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club members and their guests road trip to explore the restaurants of Kosciusko and the surrounding area.

Titus Funeral Home

On the Friday, Oct. 27, just before Halloween, we gathered outside the venerable Titus Funeral Home to meet our wildcard guests before heading to our lunch location. Greeting us with warm handshakes were the very well-suited Owner and Funeral Director Cory Benz, Titus Community Outreach Coordinator and Kosciusko County Coroner Tyler Huffer, and Titus Pre-planning Specialist Brittany Lyon.

As we walked across the parking lot, yellow leaves skittered across the polished shoes of the attendants. Titus had two simultaneous funerals beginning shortly.

According to Benz, his facility has three separate porticoes to greet guests and arrange funeral processions. It also has two full-size chapels. Titus Funeral Home is located at 2000 Sheridan St., in Warsaw, up the road from Oakwood Cemetery. However, they have three other locations — North Webster, Syracuse, and the crematorium north of Warsaw on SR 15.

The Hearse

“We own two hearses,” Huffer told me as he opened the gleaming back of the patiently waiting vehicle. He showed me how the clips for the casket worked and a smaller part that popped up to transport an urn. The inside of the hearse nearly glowed with shiny silver surfaces.

“A single new hearse costs between $125-$180k,” Benz told us. “And if I need special service, my hearse dealer is located in Cleveland.”

To give the arriving funeral guests some space, we said goodbye to Huffer and headed to the second Warsaw Legend of our day — American Table.

American Table

American Table is known locally for a long record of excellent service and delicious American-style choices. They do have some other options such as a Greek Gyro and the Riveria Chicken Salad, and our waitress Mary offered several daily specials including dessert.

“How many people does Titus Funeral Home employ?” I asked as I dipped a spoon into my excellent New England Clam Chowder.

TIP: American Table offers at least two soup choices daily.

“Twenty-seven people right now,” Benz told me as he worked on his salad. “Not all full-time of course. We have attendants and greeters and people who clean and polish. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays are the busiest days for us always.”

“When is your busiest day as a preplanner, Brittany?” inquired REMAX Realtor Jeff Owens. “For example, do you have a groundswell of interest after the passing of a loved one?”

Lyon paused to organize the red onions on her salad. “All days are busy for me,” she answered. “But some days I have two appointments and other days 10.”

Benz frowned. “Actually Jeff, in our business, groundswell isn’t a good thing usually.”

What Does A Funeral Director Do?

Once our gorgeous steak fajitas, quesadillas, Ruben sandwiches and club sandwiches arrived in record time, we returned to asking funeral home questions. “What’s one of the hardest things you do?” local Attorney Antony Garza asked.

Benz gestured at his knee. “A few months ago, I was helping to carry a casket in the rain. The director always carries at the head to help direct and steer. That day the casket was heavy, and I slipped and tore my ACL.”

Several at the table nodded as they had helped carry caskets and knew how heavy they could be. Military casket holding is even harder as the casket must always be level even if going up stairs. Benz added, “Sometimes the groundskeepers must run over and help us, but we’ve never dropped a casket. Never.”

“Are there any new innovations in the funeral business?” Banker Paul Finley asked.

Benz chuckled. “The funeral business does everything very much the same since the 40s or 50s really. But at Titus, we’ve adopted some new ways of putting together a Celebration of Life Event. Some new ways of personalizing a service such as creating puzzles or sharing of a person’s hobbies.”

Lyon added, “For example, I’ve seen a mother’s special recipe included.”

“Once we had a family do a jazz procession from the gate of the cemetery to the gravestone. That was cool,” Benz told us.

“Also, did you know that a retired nurse can have an honor guard come to the funeral for free? They light a Florence Nightingale lamp and leave it for the family.” Other honor guards are available for veterans, those in the Scottish Rite, firemen, policemen, and other service professions. Oakwood Cemetery will install an honorably discharged veteran’s plaque free too.

Working in the funeral business can be high stress. The director must help with high emotions, people who are grieving and haven’t slept, family conflicts and de-escalations.

Preplanning Is More Interesting Than Expected

Lyon helps people preplan for their funerals to save their loved ones’ extra grief and confusion.

We asked what the most useful thing was to know.

“Did you know that preplanning funds go into a trust,” Lyon told us. “So, unlike life insurance which can be taken, the trust is irrevocable. A nursing home can’t take it. A creditor can’t take it. The trust is locked until that person dies. Once the trust is funded, and we discuss how to make that happen, the trust will always be there for the family to pay for the funeral as needed.” Britany handles about 160 policies a year.

Brittany also helps with monuments or gravestones. Titus has a small collection on the grounds for clients to gauge size, color, style, and granite. Monument prices can range from $500 to $10k. Lyons helps with all the confusing details of choices and cemetery rules too. “There’s even a stone with a LEGO man in Oakwood,” she told us.

Special Thanks To Mary

Our waitress Mary had kept a regular and expert eye on us, refilling drinks, and making sure we had napkins and condiments.

Once more she returned to see if we needed anything else. She even asked if we wanted drinks to go. Very few of us had leftovers because we had eaten everything down to the crumbs

The American Table deserves that reputation for excellent service and solid, tasty food.

Do you know of an interesting place, restaurant, nonprofit, or person that you’d like to see featured in Dives and Diners or in profiles behind the scenes someday? Send SB Communications LLC an email at [email protected].