MEMPHIS, Tenn. — “The pain and hurt still hurt like it was yesterday,” Deshanda Webber said.
She may have been 18-years-old, but family members still called Myneishia Johnson a child.
“You ain’t ready to bury no child,” Webber told WREG. “You ain’t looking for that. Nobody call you to tell you your child dead.”
Instead of planning for a high school graduation, Johnson’s family was planning a funeral they were not prepared for.
“Everybody would’ve pitched in to help, but you know — yeah it would have been a struggle because it’s hard,” Webber explained.
Johnson, also known as Shugnug, received an outpouring of support and donations, which not every crime victim is so lucky to have.
“I’m in the business. I bury them. I hate to see them that way,” Edmund Ford Sr. said.
Ford knows funerals can be pricey.
In the Mid-South, the National Funeral Directors Association said a funeral and burial for an adult can cost on average $8,433. A service with a cremation would cost more than $5,900. The statistics were from 2014, which is the last year data was collected.
Children’s funeral costs are harder to track because sometimes funeral homes have discounts to help families.
“Average one that has a child that passed like that — really they don’t have insurance, they don’t have anything. So really they’re at a loss,” Ford said.
“Shouldn’t no parent have to bury their child. That’s a hurting feeling,” Webber said.
The NFDA reported people are paying 30 percent more to bury their loved ones across the country than they were in 2004.
Johnson’s funeral is scheduled for Friday, May 27 at the Progressive Baptist Church.
