People will plan their finances, their families, their retirement, just about everything except their funerals. Without end-of-life planning, life’s other plans can come undone, and the forthcoming book, A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die (Light Tree Press), will help get the conversation started.
“Just as talking about sex won’t make you pregnant, talking about funerals won’t make you dead – and your family will benefit from the conversation,” says author Gail Rubin.
A Good Goodbye provides the information, inspiration and tools to plan and implement creative, meaningful and memorable end-of-life rituals for people, and their pets, too.
The book uses gentle humor to convey the vital information about funeral arrangements that most people don’t learn about until faced with a death in the family such as:
• Five things everyone should know NOW before a loved one dies
• Four reasons healthy people plan their own funerals
• How to save thousands of dollars by pre-planning
• How to break the ice to talk about family funeral planning
On the heels of the release of the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, A Good Goodbye devotes an entire chapter to religious funeral traditions for major faiths, providing an excellent resource for interfaith families who might not know much about their own religious traditions, let alone their partner’s.
“Gail Rubin takes on society’s last taboo in a readable, practical manner with a light touch. It’s a great read for anyone who isn’t sure about this ‘death thing’ and how to best prepare for it,” said Joe Sehee, executive director of the Green Burial Council.
The book will be released in time for Create a Great Funeral Day on October 30, and copies can be reserved at a pre-publication discount at www.AGoodGoodbye.com.
Author Gail Rubin is an event planner specializing in end-of-life celebrations and a professional speaker about funeral planning and getting the conversation started. She created The Family Plot Blog (http://TheFamilyPlot.wordpress.com) an online resource for preplanning a healing and meaningful memorial service. She is a member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling and has experience with hundreds of funerals and memorial services. As a breast cancer survivor, she treats the subject of facing death with humor and compassion. Learn more at www.AGoodGoodbye.com.