The Family Plot Blog
Mary Tyler Moore Plans Chuckles’ Funeral
Mary Tyler Moore's death yesterday at the age of 80 prompted an outpouring of loving tributes in print and on television. Adding to the adulation, here are three scenes from the Emmy Award-winning episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, "Chuckles Bites the Dust." This entire episode, available on Amazon.com, is an excellent way to get funeral planning conversations started. Chuckles, the clown at the local Minneapolis TV station where Mary...
Battling Cancer and the Problem of Hope
Dr. Leslie Blackhall, Head of Palliative Care at the University of Virginia, provides a wonderful look at our human tendency to pretend we aren't going to die, and the challenge of clinging to "hope" while undergoing cancer treatment in this TEDxCharlottesville talk. She believes that accepting dying as a part of life allows us to achieve a fuller and richer life with the days that we live. She says, "It is optional and unnecessary suffering,...
Why Include a Thanatologist in Your Circle of Life Experts?
Gary Newman, a regular columnist in the Myrtle Beach Sun News (a.k.a. MyrtleBeachOnline.com), just wrote a lovely column that included a favorable mention of my new book, KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die. Here's the first part of his column, which appeared on Sunday, January 22, 2017. "Who's my thanatologist?…My what?" Some bright guru exclaimed: "Dying's part of living." No kidding, guru! Sure,...
The Times, They Are A-Changing
There's a new administration taking power in Washington, D.C. this Friday. And, as Bob Dylan sang decades ago, the times, they are a changin'. One thing about life - as long as we live, there will be changes. Changes don't matter much to the dead. Many people say, "I don't care what you do after I'm dead. I won't be there." This can be very hurtful to the family and friends who love this person. If people didn't love you, they wouldn't mourn...
Use This Gesture of Respect to Reap Big Benefits
At the International Cemetery Cremation and Funeral Association's (ICCFA) summer University, in the College of International Studies, students learn a rich combination of cultural and religious funeral traditions, presented by experienced industry professionals. Here's one cultural insight that can improve business for any funeral home or cemetery, or any service business. In the session on Chinese American funeral traditions, Bob Yount,...
Three Myths About Burial Insurance
Anthony Martin, owner and CEO of Choice Mutual, authored today's guest blog post on "Three Myths About Burial Insurance." It's almost impossible for any industry to be completely devoid of inaccuracies and misinformation. The internet only exacerbates this problem given how fast and far it enables the dissemination of half truths – particularly in the burial insurance market. The drawback of this misinformation is that it influences the end...
Review: The New York Times Book of the Dead
You know you’ve arrived – and departed – when your life is chronicled in a news obituary in The New York Times. The New York Times Book of the Dead, which pulls together 320 print and 10,000 digital obituaries of extraordinary people, also illustrates how the news obituary has changed since the newspaper’s first such article in 1851. The New York Times Book of the Dead and its online counterpart offer a valuable resource for researchers,...
You Can Ditch Old Issues in the New Year
Welcome to 2017! Perhaps you made some goals or resolutions for the New Year. What's the difference between goals and resolutions? You may resolve to lose weight, make or save more money, or simply enjoy your life more. But how do you measure your progress? My fellow Toastmaster TK O'Geary just did a speech in our Albuquerque Challenge Toastmasters Club on how setting goals is more effective than making resolutions. Goals are: Specific. It...
![[Video] How to Create an Iconic Jaguar Hearse](https://i0.wp.com/agoodgoodbye.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Jaguar-hearse-in-cemetery.jpg?resize=400%2C250&ssl=1)
[Video] How to Create an Iconic Jaguar Hearse
I've written about Ken Roberts a few times on this blog. He's the automobile enthusiast who recreated the Jaguar hearse from the 1971 cult classic film, Harold and Maude. Read all about it in A Real Jaguar Hearse Inspired by Harold and Maude (Dec. 23, 2015) and How to Recreate a Famous Jaguar Hearse (Aug. 22, 2016). In this video interview, illustrated with selected clips from Harold and Maude, Ken Roberts reveals: Why he decided to undertake...
What to Know About Four Remarkable Religions’ Funeral Traditions
Many people have questions about the religious funeral traditions for adherents of the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Greek Orthodox faiths. These four separate podcasts on A Good Goodbye Radio with host Gail Rubin, CT, offer in-depth insights. Jewish Funeral Traditions Even though Jewish funeral traditions are thousands of years old, many Reform and Conservative Jews today are unfamiliar with those rites. David Zinner, founder and executive...
Insights Magazine Profiles Gail Rubin, CT
"Unfinished Business," an article by Diane Bosser in the Fall 2016 issue of Insights Magazine, the publication for Montgomery College alumni and friends, focuses on Gail Rubin, CT, The Doyenne of Death®. A pioneering death educator, Rubin graduated from Montgomery College in 1978 with an AA degree in Radio, Television and Film. She puts her degree to work by using funny film clips to supplement the humorous presentations she makes on...
Five Ways to Save Money on Death Care Costs
Despite great advances in medical care, humans still have a 100% mortality rate. Yet fewer than 30% of adults do any end-of-life planning: wills or trusts, advance medical directives and pre-need funeral planning. That leaves 70% of the population struggling to pull together information and make decisions, not IF but WHEN there’s a death in the family. Loved ones may be tempted to overspend on funerals out of guilt or grief. Planning ahead can...
How to Make Pet Loss Easier to Bear
Anyone who's ever had a dog, cat or other companion animal can tell you how hard it is emotionally when a pet dies or goes missing. These three podcasts on A Good Goodbye Radio provide many great tips help address pet loss. A Good Goodbye is an entertaining and educational 60-minute online radio show on “everything you need to know before you go,” covering a wide range of critical information most people don’t consider until there’s a death in...
Jan. 21: ABQ Death Cafe
Mark your calendars to attend the next Albuquerque Death Cafe, scheduled for Saturday, January 21, 2017 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Gail Rubin’s home. The objective of the Death Cafe is “To increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives.” It’s an interesting, unstructured conversation – open and free-flowing with no specific agenda and respectful of all points of view. It’s an opportunity to...
Death is Expensive: Bad With Money Podcast
Here's a brilliant podcast discussion for people in their 20s, 30s, even their 40s to learn about funeral planning, wills and trusts. Bad With Money With Gaby Dunn titled its December 14, 2016 episode, "Death is F*cking Expensive." Gaby Dunn interviews two young comedians about their experiences with parental death when mothers and fathers die without wills and no discussion of funeral plans. You know those money podcasts where financial...
How to Get a Free Cremation
Want to get a free cremation? Donating your body to science helps foster medical education and research while providing cremation at no cost to the family. Many medical schools and national research organizations will foot the bill for transportation, cremation and a death certificate. They will either return the cremated remains to the family or respectfully scatter the ashes. It's a relatively easy way to minimize the cost of cremation, but...
Seven Funeral Trends to Watch in 2017
Funeral Directors: As we stand at the threshold of 2017, check out the feedback I’m getting from the public during my presentations on funeral planning and end-of-life issues. Let’s take a look into the crystal ball and ponder funeral trends the industry will face in the New Year. Climbing Cremation Rates When I ask my audiences about their burial versus cremation preferences, at least two-thirds of the people choose cremation. The national...
How to Create a Tangible Pre-Need Keepsake
How do you create a tangible object to remember a loved one, before that person dies? Here's an answer in today's guest post contributed by Laurel Lagoni. All too often, people are advised to put everything away that reminds them of a loved one who has died. The false belief is that the best way to recover from loss is to cut off all memories that might cause feelings of sadness and grief. But grief experts say maintaining a bond with a loved...
Dec. 10: Talk and Signing at Treasure House Books
This Saturday, December 10 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., come visit Treasure House Books on the Plaza in Old Town Albuquerque for a fun time with Gail Rubin talking about her new book, KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die. She's bringing her famous homemade dark chocolate peppermint toffee to share! The Alibi alternative weekly had this to say about the event: Ever wonder what will happen to that...
Helping Out with Timely Holiday Tips
It's December and the holidays are now officially in full swing. Let us avoid holiday clichés and focus on meanings - loving our fellow beings, caring for those in need, and lighting up our long nights here in the northern hemisphere. You may find these recent videos to be helpful: Memorializing Loved Ones with Luminarias, a Mortality Minute look at the Southwest tradition of illuminating and visiting graves on Christmas Eve, and Tips on How to...
News Series Focuses on a Flawed Guardian System
The Albuquerque Journal published a five-part investigative report about problems in New Mexico's elder guardianship system -- issues common in guardianship systems across the United States. The series showed how families can be ripped apart by the actions of judges, lawyers, hired caregivers and disgruntled family members, all under the guise of a system that is supposed to protect the vulnerable elderly. Investigative journalist Diane Dimond,...