Today’s #TalkDeath Roundtable discussion provided lots of great insights about funeral planning (or not), new trends in death care and funerals, and the problem of making decisions under duress of grief. The session was facilitated by Mandy Benoulid and Georgia Carter of Qeepr.
The featured guest experts are Chris Raymond, editor of About.com’s Dying, Funerals & Grief website, and past editor of The Director funeral trade magazine, and Gail Rubin, Certified Thanatologist and Funeral Celebrant, author and host of A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die.
Questions included:
- What do you perceive to be the worst end-of-life problem right now? (pretending we aren’t going to die)
- What are the most common mistakes consumers make when choosing a funeral home or making funeral arrangements? (not planning ahead or shopping around)
- What do the panelists think of death and religion? Does faith make it more complicated or easier to deal with? (less religion = the rise of funeral celebrants)
- What role does public education have in teaching children about death and dying? (not much!)
- Is it common for people to be buried with specific objects? (oh yes, all the time – watch the video for the range of amazing arrangements)
- Are people having their pets euthanized to be buried or cremated with them when they die?
- How do you donate your body to science? (best to plan ahead)
- What alternatives are there to burial and cremation? (learn about alkaline hydrolysis and freeze drying!) Why would people want to consider these alternatives?
- Can families witness or participate in the washing and dressing of a body if they want to?
- What are the biggest challenges today for death educators?
Watch the video below!