Ratterman Family Funeral Homes

Each month we will visit something that Louisvillians love and explore the reasons why.  Pearson’s, Ratterman’s, Highlands, A.D. Porter, Arch L. Heady, Schoppenhorst, Stoess, Owen …It probably only took you a couple seconds to realize that I am listing local funeral homes. And those are just the ones that I can list off the top of my head, without consulting my handy Yellow Pages.Prayer cards from different visitationsWhy am I starting off this monthly column about Louisville talking about funeral homes? It’s simple really: We spend SO much time there, more than most cities do, I’ve realized over time. I think Louisville’s funeral home scene, because so many are still locally owned, has a homecoming-ish quality to it. It’s a place to see people and show support for your people. A place to come together and remember your shared pasts and discuss your futures.I can pretty much guarantee that if we are meeting my in-laws out for dinner or at an event that starts after 6 p.m., they will be coming directly from the funeral home to meet us. I believe that they are at a visitation somewhere in Louisville at least twice a week, often more. For them, both Louisville natives and lifelong residents, there is always someone they know who is at the funeral home, in need of a visit. It is definitely a part-time job, or at least something you could classify as a hobby, with the amount of hours they spend at various funeral homes around Louisville. And it’s not just them, though. It’s so many people I know from here. They funeral home hop all the time and always manage to work it into their busy schedules.“It’s what you do,” is my husband’s constant mantra. And, you know what? He’s right.We love our sponsors!I come from a different background on going to the funeral home. My parents never, and I mean never, went to the funeral home. I can think of three times that my dad went to the funeral home for visitations that I actually went to as well: two of his close friends and his own father. It wasn’t until high school that I realized that visitations were happening all the ... (StyleBlueprint (blog))