This week’s mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada reminds us: life can be short. Our time on Earth is precious. What do you want to do before you die?
And then what? Less than 30% of adults make any end-of-life plans. That leaves 70% of our loved ones scrambling to gather information and make expensive decisions under duress of grief. It doesn’t have to be that way.
The inaugural Before I Die ABQ festival will honestly, humanely, and even humorously answer your questions. From October 20-25, 2017, hundreds of people in Albuquerque, New Mexico will participate in activities to help us address our eventual 100% mortality rate. Activities, many free or low-cost, include:
- Before I Die walls at Central New Mexico Community College and Sunset Memorial Park, to publicly declare our goals.
- Field trips to cemeteries, a casket making workshop, the Office of the Medical Investigator, and a ghost tour.
- An art show on cremation, movies, yoga and meditation sessions on life and death.
- Sessions on green burial, financial, medical, funeral and estate planning issues.
- The “Prelude to Eternity” Death Over Dinner experience in a cemetery, with music and theatrical readings.
- Death Cafes to discuss what’s on your heart or mind about mortality issues.
Attendees at all Before I Die ABQ Festival events can enter a drawing for a free cremation from The Neptune Society of Albuquerque and a cedar “coff-urn” from The Old Pine Box.
View the entire Before I Die ABQ Festival schedule at this page at www.BeforeIDieABQ.com.
Festival coordinator and pioneering death educator Gail Rubin is available for interviews. Megan Kamerick with local NPR station KUNM-FM did this interview, Festival Invites People to Talk About Death. Albuquerque Business First did this story, “New ABQ festival tells what you’re dying to know.”
View Gail’s talk about the festival, presented in August:
