The Family Plot Blog
Tonight: Make Community Connections at TEDxABQ Women
Tonight, November 2, 2017, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the KiMo Theater, come for an evening of inspired TED talks by nine women speakers at the 2017 TEDxABQ Women event. TEDxABQWomen2017 explores the many aspects of this year’s theme—Bridges—through talks from local leaders, performances and audience engagement. The KiMo is located at 423 Central Ave. NW, Albuquerque. More information and ticket sales through this link. Gail Rubin, event...
One Danger of DIY Funerals: Body Stealing
In most states, families have the right to take care of their dead leading up to final disposition: burial or cremation. One family discovered a danger of DIY funerals - a body stolen during DIY body shipment. As reported in today's Albuquerque Journal, a family in process of transporting a relative's body had their Chevy Trailblazer and the U-Haul it was towing stolen from the Residence Inn where they were staying. The family was transporting...
A Checklist for Jewish Funeral Planning
It's September, the month when the Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur usually occur, bringing to mind our fleeting days on earth and reminders of mortality. I say "usually" because the dates on the Jewish lunar calendar float year-to-year compared to the Gregorian calendar. This year the Jewish New Year starts the evening of September 20 and the Day of Atonement starts the evening of September 29. During the holidays of Yom...
RIP New Age Pioneer Louise Hay
Louise Hay, a pioneer of New Age thought and the self-help movement, died of natural causes in her sleep at the age of 90 in the early hours of August 30, 2017. The founder of Hay House, Inc., she started a successful publishing company that has sold millions of books and products worldwide. Is it a coincidence that her "transition" occurred two years to the day that Wayne Dyer, one of their top authors, made his move to the Great Beyond? They...
Hundreds Participate in Free Scatter Day Event
By all measurements, the free Scatter Day event at Sunset Memorial Park was a big success. French Funerals & Cremations, which owns Sunset, would have been happy helping 50 families give a final resting place for the cremated remains of their loved ones. The total count of families helped was more than 600. Funeral industry surveys indicate one in five households have human cremated remains somewhere in the home. While some of those...
Celebrity Funerals to Die For
Bob Morris, who was interviewed on A Good Goodbye Radio about his book Bobby Wonderful: An Imperfect Son Buries His Parents, also writes stories for Town & Country Magazine. The September issue features his story How the Celebrity Funeral Became the New Royal Wedding: A look at how the other half dies. Here's a sample of his writing in this great article: Not so long ago funerals for most people were somber affairs. Now death has joined...
Musical Video from the New Zealand Coffin Club
Building your own coffin is a positive way to face your own mortality and improve your woodworking skills at the same time. Back in February of 2017, the New York Times ran a news story about a group of senior citizens in New Zealand who started a D.I.Y. coffin club. Many other such clubs have since sprung up around the world. They bring people together to build their own burial containers, which they playfully call “underground furniture.”...
Headspace Blog on Death Cafes and Mourning
Death Cafe aficionados will appreciate this story on the popular Headspace blog, Death and coffee: how one cafe is breaking taboos, by Maggie Grimason. She interviewed me for the piece and came to an Albuquerque Death Cafe this summer. It focuses on the death positivity movement, and how Death Cafes play a role. A short excerpt: My discomfort with addressing death never receded as I grew up. In fact, it didn’t even strike me as unusual, since...
Honor Your Ancestors at ABQ’s Obon Festival
On Thursday, August 10, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., the Japanese Garden at the ABQ BioPark Botanic Garden is hosting an Obon Festival. This is sort of a Japanese version of our local Day of the Dead celebration, a traditional Buddhist festival for honoring one's ancestors. You get to make floating lanterns and send them out on the big koi pond! Here's the official info from the city web site: Obon Festival at Japanese Garden Join us in the Japanese...
These Boots are Made for Talking About Death
Clothing and accessories can really help break the ice when it comes to to talking about death, funeral planning, and end-of-life issues. My go-to pieces are a skull concho belt from Mexico, black Lucchese cowboy boots with embroidered skulls and roses, and Scully western shirts that match those boots. Look out world, The Doyenne of Death has a new pair of cowboy boots! These incredible sugar skull embroidered boots are made by Old Gringo in...
Skeletons in the Closet: Fun Shopping at the L.A. Coroner’s Office
"(Final) exit through the gift shop: L.A. County Coroner's Office has souvenirs to die for" by Liz Langley, a fun travel article in The Washington Post, details a few of the offbeat items you can get at the unique gift shop, Skeletons in the Closet. Need a beach towel? How about this cool chalk body outline version? You can get lots of other fun CSI-themed nicknacks, too. Author Liz Langley writes: In this snug little store, you can get scrubs,...
August 11: A Quick Talk on Before I Die ABQ
PechaKucha Night talks challenge speakers to present an idea while illustrating what they have to say using 20 PowerPoint slides displayed at a rate of 20 seconds each. That equals a concise talk that lasts exactly six minutes and 40 seconds. The Weekly Alibi is hosting its inaugural ABQ PechaKucha Night at the South Broadway Cultural Center (1025 South Broadway Blvd. SE) on Aug. 11, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. One of the speakers on the stage that...
Doctor Questions His End-of-Life “Win”
A young doctor is presented an emergency room life or death situation involving his grandfather-in-law. The man can be saved with short-term life support measures. The 87-year-old patient's advance medical directives dictate he doesn't want aggressive interventions to extend his life. What should be done? That's the dilemma faced by Jeremy Topin, in his Perspective column in The Washington Post titled, "I saved an old man's life. He didn't want...
Playwright Helps Start Conversations About End-of-Life Issues
Robert F. Benjamin is a playwright who's committed to helping people start difficult conversations about end-of-life issues through theater productions of his comedies and dramas. His new play STILL IN THE GAME is an upbeat family drama about aging with grace, courage and humor. The production will be staged in Santa Fe at Teatro Paraguas August 10-20, 2017. Here's the outline of the story: Recently widowed, David (age 70) strives to restart...
Liberate and Honor Cremated Remains for Free
If you've got human cremated remains that you'd rather not keep around your house, mark your calendar for Saturday, August 26, 2017. The fine folks at Sunset Memorial Park invite you to bring those remains to scatter them in their cremation rose garden or ossuary, an underground structure that provides a secure resting place for multiple cremated remains. They'll even provide a free marker to help memorialize that person. Here's the news...
July 28: Laugh and Learn in this End-of-Life Workshop
If you need a push to get those pesky funeral plans going before someone dies, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute class “Laughing and Learning” will give you the tools and the inspiration to take practical steps for planning a “good goodbye.” Gail Rubin, Certified Thanatologist, will present the workshop on Friday, July 28, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the UNM Continuing Education Center, 1634 University Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM. Register for...
Dear Abby Agrees: You Need to Plan Ahead
In the second letter of her column on July 14, Dear Abby ran a letter from a woman whose father put all his vital information into a notebook he called "Jack's Doomsday Book." It contained account numbers and balances, names of banks, passwords, locations of documents and other detailed instructions on how to take over his responsibilities if he was incapacitated. He always said that if something happened to him, to find that notebook in which...
July 21: Free Habitat for Humanity Funeral Planning Talk
On Friday, July 21 at noon, Gail Rubin presents “A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don't Plan to Die” at the conference room next to Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore at 4900 Menaul Blvd. NE. Despite the fact that humans have a 100% mortality rate, less than 25% of adults do any end-of-life planning: wills or trusts, advance medical directives and pre-need funeral planning. That means 75% of our loved ones will scramble to collect...
July 19: Free Habitat for Humanity Downsizing Talk
On Wednesday, July 19 at noon, Gail Rubin presents "Kicking the Bucket List: Downsizing Things to Do Before You Die" at the conference room next to Habitat for Humanity's ReStore at 4900 Menaul Blvd. NE. Do you plan to live forever? Do you ever plan to move? Depending on where you're going, you can't take it with you. Gail Rubin, Certified Thanatologist, will show you how to: tackle downsizing without being overwhelmed evaluate what to keep,...
Easy How To Tips for Writing a Condolence Card or Note
Use journalism’s “Five Ws” to guide your way writing as condolence card or sympathy note: Who, What, When, Where, and Why.
Green Burial Interest Keeps Growing
Interest in green burial keeps growing, and funeral homes are starting to take notice. "This is How I Want to Be Dead," an opinion column by Richard Conniff in the New York Times, is generating hundreds of comments about green burial and other alternatives to the "traditional" funeral. Among the topics he covers: alkaline hydrolysis, cremation, conventional cemeteries and conservation burial grounds. From his column: It might be tempting to...