Several area funeral homes have reported an inordinately high number of deaths over the past month or so.

While no one knows what has caused the high number of deaths, funeral directors speculated that holiday stress and changing weather patterns might play a role.

Cliff Ford with Ford and Sons Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau said that in the first eight days of January the funeral home has handled 15 funerals. In December, 43 funerals were conducted. "An average for us is about 29 or 30 per month," Ford said.

"The holidays are usually busier than normal, but not to this extent," he said.

"We're talking about a high number here, but each one of those numbers represent a person and family," Ford said. "And its especially tough at the holidays."

Ford said, "The deaths have been pretty well all age groups."

Scott Amick of Amick-Burnett Funeral Homes in Scott City and Chaffee said, "We had about twice as many (deaths) in December than we expect in a normal month, and we've had about 25 percent more this December than we have ever had in a December."

Amick-Burnett funeral homes handled 39 funerals in December. The highest number ever recorded before was 31 funerals, Amick said. An average month is 18 to 22 funerals.

Amick, who is also Scott County coroner, said: "There was nothing highly unusual in how they were dying. There weren't any suspicious or accidental deaths, mostly just natural deaths.

"We had a broad mix of people," he said. "Mostly it was people up in their years, but we did have some younger people.

"Really, I don't know what to attribute (the high number of deaths) to. It was very unusual," he said. "Sometimes a change in the weather brings on flu and colds.

"If you look back through the years, December, January and February are usually the months with more deaths," he said.

"I think maybe some people want to live to Christmas, then it's a let down. Other people, I think, get depressed during the holidays and that takes away some of their will to live."

He said the number of deaths has not slowed significantly in January.

Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Carpenter said the high number of deaths is "nothing out of the ordinary.

"Up until the last six or seven weeks, the death rate has been off. It has just recently taken an upward swing."

Carpenter added that in the winter, many critically ill people succumb to their illness, he said.

Bryan Crain with the seven Crain Funeral Homes in Southern Illinois said, "It's been busy here, but these things kind of go in cycles. We haven't seen anything that unusual. Generally the holidays and winter months mean more deaths."

Tom Nunnelee with Nunnelee Funeral Home in Sikeston said: "We were very, very busy in November, but December was not as busy. November was nearly twice the number of calls than we would normally have on an average month.

Nunnelee said, "It seems at times, changes in the seasons do precipitate more deaths especially for the elderly.

"Also many times during the holiday season people feel depressed. Sometimes we deal with suicides at this time of year," Nunnelee said. "Fortunately we didn't have that experience this year."

Ken Liley with Liley Funeral Home at Marble Hill and Patton said, "It's been pretty busy here. December was an extremely busy month. We were about double our caseload for both November and December."

Liley added, "We've noticed a lot of younger deaths, people in their late 40s and 50s.

"I have no idea what causes a phenomenon like this. We had a lot of people die of heart problems. Maybe the stress of the holidays caused anxiety which led to some of these deaths.

"I've even heard conversations that maybe even the economy and the stress that causes is playing a role in this."

Bruce Dockins of McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson said, "I think there has been more talk about the number of deaths recently than anything else I've heard. It has been busy."

Dockins said the number of funerals began to pick up in October and continued through November and December.

"We had deaths across a broad spectrum of people."

Gene Cracraft of Cracraft-Miller Funeral Home in Jackson said the number of funerals handled at the funeral home was about the same as last year. But he said he had noticed an overall swell in the number of deaths.

"Deaths fluctuate like that. Next year in December there might not be very many. "There is no way to predict and no way to say what happened."