The Family Plot Blog
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,...
How To Keep Memories Alive With Christmas Luminaria
While the holiday season brings many people joy, it's a stressful time for those mourning the loss of loved ones. But families can keep precious memories alive and celebrate with Christmas Eve luminaria. Here in the American Southwest, there's a tradition of visiting the graves of loved ones on Christmas Eve. In Catholic cemeteries, the night of December 24 is the busiest time of the year for visitors, rivaling even Memorial Day. Graves are...
A Roadster for Car Enthusiasts and Funeral Directors
If you saw this vehicle on the road, you'd probably think it originated in the 1920s or 1930s. But this Baron Roadster was originally designed in the 1970s by Max Prinzing, a pioneering automotive manufacturer who created vehicles that looked like old classics. Richard Neal, President of Rosewood Classic Coach, debuted this prototype roadster at the National Funeral Directors Association convention and expo in 2016. His hearses, based on the...
3-D Photographs Uniquely Preserve Memories of Loved Ones
If you've ever been to Las Vegas, you may have seen vendors in the passageways between casinos hawking 3D photo images in crystal, made to order on the spot. It's amazing how they can do this! You can now find similar technology being used by your local funeral home to preserve memories of your loved ones. Legacy Touch started four years ago, creating custom fingerprint memorial jewelry for families. The funeral director takes a fingerprint...
Casket Pods for Green Burial from Capsula Mundi
With the growing interest in green burial in the U.S., an Italian company has designed biodegradable egg-shaped burial containers for cremated remains and full bodies in a fetal position. The Capsula Mundi burial pods are meant for pairing with a live tree in a natural burial ground. Capsula Mundi's founders, Italian designers Raoul Bretzel and Anna Citelli, see death as not the end, but the beginning of a way back to nature. They have...
How to Avoid Political Arguments at Thanksgiving
Want to avoid political arguments around the table this Thanksgiving? Talk about death and your preferences on end-of-life issues instead. Remembering that we all have a deadline, and rededicating ourselves to making the most of this lifetime before we reach that last day, provides some perspective. Here are sources for great free tools you can download to help get the conversation started: The Conversation Project - Nonprofit organization...
Compassion and Choices Introduces Truth in Treatment
The nonprofit organization Compassion & Choices has made great strides over the past few years to make medical aid in dying available to mentally capable, terminally ill patients in the U.S. Barbara Coombs Lee, the president of Compassion & Choices, just announced a new initiative: Truth in Treatment™. Compassion & Choices is igniting a social movement to end an epidemic of over-treatment at the end of life. Truth in Treatment™ will...
How to Get a Natural Burial in New Mexico
The baby boomer generation is gradually becoming aware of its mortality, and true to this generation's pioneering ways, the 80 million boomers in the U.S. are changing the approach to death. No traditional funerals for this crowd! Celebrating life, and natural burial, a.k.a. green burial, is of growing interest to the aging men and women born between 1946 to 1964. On the latest A Good Goodbye Radio interview on FuneralRadio.com, host Gail...
Requiem: A Free and Simple App for Funeral Communications
When a loved one dies, especially when there's been no pre-need funeral planning, many families have no easy way to contact everyone that needs to know about the memorial service. Think about it: when time is of the essence, can you easily assemble the names and contact information for all your family and friends? The Requiem app, introduced at the 2016 National Funeral Directors Association convention and expo, is helping the funeral industry...
A Story to Comfort Mothers of Stillborn Babies
This guest blog post was written by Sarah Rickerd, founder and owner of Carry Your Heart Jewelry and Gifts. How do you say a good goodbye when you never said hello? On April 23, 2013, I held my daughter Lena Grace, stillborn at seven months’ gestation, for twenty minutes, creating a sacred space for us amidst the beeps and blips of hospital monitors that would hold the entirety of our relationship together in this world. With the two year-old...
How to Make “Time for Family, Time For Talk” NOW
As families gather for holiday events and other occasions, they are encouraged to simply talk more. Share stories. Reminisce. Find out what matters most to the people who matter most to you. It’s the perfect time of the year to ask questions and talk about life. That’s the idea behind Have the Talk of a Lifetime Month: “Time for Family, Time for Talk.” It’s a special month-long event sponsored by the Funeral and Memorial Information Council...
Advanced Audio Systems for Funeral Homes
When you think about engaging the services of a funeral home, the quality of their audio visual systems is probably not top-of-mind. Yet, when the music or the video tribute doesn't play when it's supposed to during a memorial service, that can leave a bad impression upon the family when they remember their use of that funeral home. Chris Runnels, owner of Advanced Audio Systems, has been installing audio and visual systems solely for funeral...
Watching Artistic Wooden Urns Created at the NFDA Expo
Most of the funeral products on display at the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) convention expo were exhibited in their finished form. Only Clark McMullen, founder and artist at Artistic Urns, brought his workshop to the showroom floor. "We brought the process with us here to show how we create a hand-turned wooden urn," said McMullen. In the booth was a slice of a tree trunk, representing the timber they rescue from arborists, the...
How Death Anxiety Affects Our Views of Politics
Finally, Election Day is here. After a vitriol-filled, seemingly-endless campaign, voters are voting and we'll have results soon. If you haven't done it yet, please vote! Did you know that Dr. Ernest Becker, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Denial of Death, famously argued that our death anxiety influences our choices and behaviors? Check out this explanation of his Terror Management Theory to learn how the major parties use fear...