The Family Plot Blog
May 31: How to Downsize and Organize Your Stuff
In “KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die,” Gail Rubin presents creative ways to downsize and how to organize for end-of-life issues well BEFORE someone dies. This talk will take place on Thursday, May 31, 1:15 to 2:30 p.m. at the Meadowlark Senior Center, 4330 Meadowlark Lane, Rio Rancho. Do you plan to live forever? Good for you! Do you ever plan to move? Depending on where you’re going, you can’t take...
Love These Creative Urns from Mexico!
With the growing U.S. cremation rate, there's a growing market for creative urns to hold cremated remains. Sacbé Urns from Mexico brought a host of their handmade urns for people and pets to the 2018 convention and expo of the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association. In the video below, Daniel Aguilar, North America Director for Sacbé, shows the wide range of colorful urns in styles that include hand-painted ceramics, mosaic...
May 20: Albuquerque Death Cafe
Time again for tea and cake and mortality conversations! The next Albuquerque Death Cafe will take place on Sunday, May 20 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the Fifth Floor Lounge at Manzano del Sol Retirement Village, 5201 Roma NE. 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 all about an interesting, unstructured conversation – open and free-flowing...
How to Pay for a Funeral
Think about it – could your credit card limit handle a charge of $8,000 to $15,000 or more for the products and services of a funeral home or cemetery? However, think of the points, the miles if you could! "The reality is that seven out of ten people today simply haven't set aside funds for a crisis," said Bruce Moore, Principal at MemorialFunding.org. "Our company works with funeral directors throughout the country, so they're able to finance...
From Photos to Treasured Keepsakes on Canvas
Photo boards and video tributes are common elements of today's funerals and memorial services. What isn't as common, but is very well received by families, is when funeral directors make those photos into keepsake gifts. For example, Funeral Home Gifts makes pictures of loved ones into beautiful tribute blankets that are displayed at a memorial service and can be ordered by the attendees. PhotoPros recently debuted their service of providing...
How to Honor the Cremated Remains of Loved Ones in a Mini-Mausoleum
With the skyrocketing trend of increasing cremation rates in the United States, cemetery operators are looking for ways to stay relevant. If there's no body to bury, what do you do? You look for ways to make placement of cremated remains an attractive option. Coldspring, one of the largest natural stone manufacturers in the United States, has some ingenious ideas. At the 2018 convention and expo of the International Cemetery, Cremation and...
Why not Spend Eternity in a Great American Pyramid?
If you're looking for a final resting place that makes a big statement, look no further than The Great American Pyramid. This new exhibitor made a big splash at the expo of the 2018 International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association (ICCFA) convention in Las Vegas. This structure will be huge: 600 feet tall and and 1,200 feet wide at the base on each side. For comparison, the largest Giza pyramid in Egypt is 455 feet tall and 781 feet...
Fun Photos from the ICCFA Funeral Convention
So much to see at the 2018 International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association (ICCFA) convention and expo! This year's theme was "All In." Even with three days to visit the expo, I still didn't get to see everything. But the new exhibitors I interviewed have some interesting offerings you'll see in my YouTube videos in the coming days and weeks. What happens in Vegas will not stay in Vegas. Meanwhile, here are some fun photos from the...
EternityGardens.com Sponsors Before I Die Festival in New Mexico
Two pioneers in death education, Gail Rubin, CT, and EternityGardens.com, a funeral industry technology platform, have teamed up to help people talk about and plan ahead for end-of-life issues. EternityGardens.com is the first national sponsor of the Before I Die ABQ Festival, taking place in the Albuquerque/Santa Fe metro markets October 30 to November 4, 2018. Chicago-based EternityGardens.com provides a website that connects individuals and...
Death News: Green Burial, Decomposition, Obituary Scams, and Buying Local Urns
It's the day after Easter. As the days get longer, we celebrate spring and the revival of life after a cold, dark winter. Here are several recent news stories about new trends in death, including how decomposition works, green burial, how to avoid scammers who harvest information from obituaries, and how one funeral home is buying local artists' urns to offer their customers. The New York Times, March 31, 2018: Decomposition: An Easter Story...
April 29: Share your thoughts at the next Death Cafe
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 all about an interesting, unstructured conversation – open and free-flowing with no specific agenda. The Death Cafe concept was started in the United Kingdom by Jon Underwood. He was influenced by the ideas of Swiss sociologist Bernard Crettaz, who started holding Cafe Mortel events in France and...
Lessons on Grief and Mourning in Cartoons
Who can resist Saturday morning cartoons? Come laugh and learn at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 21 at the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association's (ICCFA) annual convention in Las Vegas, NV. At that time, Certified Thanatologist Gail Rubin will present "Lessons on Grief and Mourning in Cartoons." Animated movies designed for children can also address the grief of adults. This presentation incorporates clips from popular...
Couples Focus on Winning The Newly-Dead Game
Since 2011, The Newly-Dead Game® has been a feature of the wild and wacky Frozen Dead Guy Days Festival. At the 2018 event, four different couples competed in three sessions of the game. The Newly-Dead Game® tests how well couples know their partners' last wishes. Each session takes about 20 minutes to complete with four couples playing. An emcee (in this case, game creator Gail Rubin) explains the rules: The emcee will ask all four couples...
Ease Pet Loss Issues with EternityGardens.com
The market for pet funerals, cremations, and burial is characterized as the fastest-growing segment of the US funeral industry. In a recent report by the Pet Loss Professionals Association, as many as 1.9 million pets were mourned with a funeral service – with the vast number of those pets being cremated. EternityGardens.com, a technology platform that connects cremation families with cemeteries and scattering services where they can lay to...
Trey Ganem’s Personalized Caskets Featured on National TV
The reporter on the NBC-TV story called Trey Ganem "The Louis Vuitton of the casket industry." Based in tiny Edna, Texas, his highly-personalized caskets are available at a comparable cost to ordinary caskets, yet they are incredibly personalized. Many run $2,000 to $4,000 and can be delivered in 24 hours. I first met Trey Ganem at the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association's convention and expo in 2014. Check out this...
Popular Mechanics on Cremation and Memorialization
"Burning Out: What Really Happens Inside a Crematorium," a huge feature story in the March 2018 issue of Popular Mechanics, covers just about everything you'd want to know about cremation. You can read the full article by Caren Chesler online. Among the topics covered in this impressive article: Cemeteries and columbaria - how the growing trend toward cremation is changing memorialization of the dead. Why the U.S. cremation rate skyrocketed...
Grandpa’s in the TUFF SHED at Frozen Dead Guy Days
Frozen Dead Guy Days, held March 9-11, 2018, a wild and wacky celebration of all things dead and frozen, is coming soon! The festival features a parade of hearses, coffin races on a snowy obstacle course, costumed polar plunging, frozen T-shirt contests, The Newly-Dead Game®, music, parties, and much more. Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death® and creator of The Newly-Dead Game®, will host screenings of the 25-minute 1998 documentary, “Grandpa’s in...
Pre-Need Funeral Planning in the News
The New York Times and the Huffington Post in Canada just ran separate articles on pre-need funeral planning. I hope this prompts more people to take action and actually plan ahead for this inevitable life cycle event. Smarter Living (and Dying!) The New York Times Smarter Living section ran Want to Plan for Your Death and Funeral? Here's How on February 20, 2018. The story by Christine Colby covers: What constitutes pre-need funeral...
If Your Home Was on Fire, What Would You Save?
If your house was on fire and you had one minute to grab any item, what would you take and why? National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday featured an interview with actresses Ellen Burstyn and Amber Tamblyn talking with host Lulu Garcia-Navarro about their latest film project, Nostalgia. In this seven-and-a-half minute interview, they discuss the value we place on the objects in our lives. The ensemble cast includes Jon Hamm and Catherine...
Can You Actually Benefit from Sadness?
We live in an era when sadness is avoided at great cost to our emotional psyches. Funerals are now celebrations of life. Even though death and loss breaks hearts, many people strive to stay positive and upbeat. “Must not cry” is the unconscious mantra of many grievers – and it’s harmful. In “The Gift and Power of Emotional Courage,” a TEDWomen 2017 talk by psychologist Susan David, she explains why it’s good to embrace so-called “negative”...
Dogs Find Lost Cremated Remains and Other News
Keeping the cremated remains of loved ones around the house? This NPR story on Weekend Edition Sunday will make you consider finding a permanent final resting place for those remains. Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes in Wildfire Wreckage takes listeners to Santa Rosa, California, where wildfires in October reduced hundreds of homes to ashes. How do you find human ashes within home ashes? These amazing dogs are finding them and helping...