The Family Plot Blog
Let’s Help Legalize Body Composting in Maryland!
Natural organic reduction, or NOR (a.k.a. body composting), might become legal in Maryland! It could become the seventh state to legalize natural organic reduction – but we need your help right now. Here's a video message about this from Gail Rubin, CT, The Doyenne of Death®. What is NOR/Body Composting? As you may know, natural organic reduction or NOR is the process for the final...
Crazy Photos: Frozen Dead Guy Days Coffin Race Teams, Costumes and More
From the 2023 Frozen Dead Guy Days Festival in Estes Park, Colorado, check out these photos of the whole crazy scene. There was lots of music, activities and generally good vibes. Planners would have been happy with 3,000 to 4,000 attendees. The event drew 6,000 to 7,000, a hugely popular turn out in this new location. Gail Rubin was there to present Newly-Dead® The Game, thanks to the company Steps After Life. Steps After Life helps families...
Coming to Frozen Dead Guy Days: Newly-Dead® The Game
A popular element of Frozen Dead Guy Days is coming to Estes Park, Colorado for the 2023 festival: Newly-Dead® The Game! Gail Rubin, CT, The Doyenne of Death®, who previously presented this activity in Nederland, is bringing it to the newly-relocated festival, March 17-19, 2023. Newly-Dead The Game is like the old TV game show, The Newlywed Game. Couples are quizzed on how well they know their partner’s last wishes. The four questions get...
Body Composting Conference in Denver March 16-17: Register Now!
Everything you need to know about body composting, aka natural organic reduction (NOR), is the topic of the inaugural Body Composting Conference: Rejoining the Cycle of Life Through Natural Organic Reduction. Being organized by The Natural Funeral, the conference is bringing together visionaries, innovators and movement makers in the death positive field for two days of networking, connection and education. Mark your calendar and make your...
How Adults Can Help Children with Grief on The Doyenne of Death Podcast
When children experience grief, sometimes it's hard for adults to know how to help. Wade Bergner, author of The Mirror Box, has written a children's book that is designed to help families understand and cope with grief. The Mirror Box is an honest story of one boy’s journey from grief to acceptance over the death of his grandfather. He speaks with Gail Rubin, Certified Thanatologist and host of The Doyenne of Death® Podcast. Among the topics...
Why are People Afraid of Hospice?
Former President Jimmy Carter revealed on February 18 that he is going home from the hospital to live out the rest of his 98-year life on hospice. Back in 2015, when President Carter was diagnosed with metastatic skin cancer, I wrote a post encouraging him to set an example and go on hospice care. He instead pursued an experimental treatment that gave him eight more years of life. And that's okay - good for him! The news coverage over the...
Creative Ways to Keep Valentine’s Day Objects
Valentine’s Day gifts are by nature sentimental. My friend Martie McNabb, CEO of Thingtide Show & Tale®, holds regular sessions where people bring objects they treasure and tell the stories behind the “thing.” Martie recently held a Valentine’s Day Show & Tales session, titled Love Letters, Lockets and Valentine's. I shared a shadow box I put together representing my parents’ long love story. It includes two Valentine’s cards from the...
Discussing Shared Death Experiences on The Doyenne of Death Podcast
What is a Shared Death Experience? You may have heard about Near Death Experiences (NDEs), when someone's body is clinically dead for a period of time. The person's consciousness leaves the body and travels to mystical realms before returning to life in the body. A Shared Death Experience (SDE) is when a person who is not dying shares the experience of someone who is dying. William Peters, author of At Heaven's Door, talks with @GailRubin on...
Celebrating the Life of Mary Woods
Mary Woods' life was celebrated with a Rosary and Vigil service at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church on Wednesday, February 1, 2023. After the Rosary is recited, about 30 minutes into this video, you can hear comments from family and friends about Mary. A Funeral Mass was held the next morning with Archbishop John C. Wester presiding. The video was recorded and edited by Gail Rubin, who writes The Family Plot Blog. Mary Woods Rosary...
Connect with Baby Boomers on End-of-Life Issues With the Before I Die Festival in a Box™
Funeral directors and cemeterians who want to generate pre-need sales can learn how to hold an end-of-life conversation-starting event with the Before I Die Festival in a Box™ by Gail Rubin, Certified Thanatologist and The Doyenne of Death®. (A doyenne is a woman considered senior in a group who knows a lot about a particular subject.) The book and additional materials will be released March 15, 2023. “Before I Die Festivals provide...
News: Sex and Death, Eco-Friendly Funerals and Downsizing
These recent news stories and opinion pieces offer insights into love and death, pet loss grief, downsizing and eco-friendly funerals. If you could, would you want to know when you will die? From The Washington Post, opinion by Steven Petrow: "Would you want to know when you’re going to die? I’ve thought about this question quite a bit recently.... The question is not entirely a hypothetical one. A few months ago, out of a morbid curiosity, I...
Islamic Funeral Traditions on The Doyenne of Death® Podcast
Islamic funeral traditions and Jewish funeral traditions are remarkably similar. There are approximately eight million Muslims in the United States, double the number of Jews in the U.S. What do Americans need to know about the different observances of these two religions? Dr. Ahmad-Rufai Abdullah speaks with host Gail Rubin on The Doyenne of Death® Podcast about Muslim traditions regarding funerals and burials. Topics discussed on this program...
End-of-Life and Funeral News Stories
There have been several recent news stories about death doulas and end-of-life issues in the media. Here's a roundup of those stories. NPR: End-of-life doulas are working to make conversations about death easier Talking about dying can be uncomfortable, awkward and heartbreaking. But a growing number of people called end-of-life doulas are working to make conversations about the inevitability of death easier for patients and their families.......
Let’s Play Death Ed Bingo!
Do you like playing Bingo? Do you wish there was an easy way to get people to talk about death and funeral planning? Be one of the first people to play Gail Rubin's new game, Death Ed Bingo! Laugh and learn about end-of-life issues while playing this word Bingo game online. Gail will debut Death Ed Bingo! with an online Zoom session on Saturday, January 21, 2023. Join her Death Cafe Albuquerque Meetup group to participate. Death Ed Bingo! Just...
Next Online Death Cafe with Gail Rubin Coming February 12
Join the Albuquerque Death Cafe online! It’s an opportunity to talk about what’s on your mind about mortality issues. We have people from across the U.S. and around the world joining in the conversation on Zoom. The next session will be held on Sunday, February 12 at 3:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. Prepare to settle in with your own cup of tea or coffee, and a nourishing snack. We’ll have an interesting, unstructured conversation that’s open...
Jewish Funeral Traditions on The Doyenne of Death Podcast
Although Jewish funeral traditions are thousands of years old, many Jews today are unfamiliar with those rites. David Zinner, founder and past executive director of Kavod v’Nichum (Honor and Comfort), discusses these traditions with Gail Rubin, host of The Doyenne of Death® Podcast. Topics discussed during the show include: The differences between Jewish and Christian funeral traditions; What are the Chevrah Kaddisha, shmira and tahara;...
Eulogies by Steve Martin and Martin Short
Eulogies can be hard to write. How can you incorporate humor? You can't get any better than this off-the-rails exchange of eulogies by Steve Martin and Martin Short, when they hosted Saturday Night Live on December 10, 2022. You might want to avoid getting into discussing sexual matters, though, unless you're actually hosting Saturday Night Live.
Next Online ABQ Death Cafe January 8, 2023
Join the Albuquerque Death Cafe online! It’s an opportunity to talk about what’s on your mind about mortality issues. We have people from across the U.S. and around the world joining in the conversation on Zoom. The next session will be held on Sunday, January 8 at 3:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. Prepare to settle in with your own cup of tea or coffee, and a nourishing snack. We’ll have an interesting, unstructured conversation that’s open...
Greek Orthodox Funeral Traditions on The Doyenne of Death® Podcast
How do Greek Orthodox funeral traditions vary from other church funerals? Father Conan Gill with St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Albuquerque, NM, talks about funeral traditions in the Greek Orthodox church with host Gail Rubin on The Doyenne of Death® Podcast. Among the topics discussed in this two-part conversation: The Trisagion Service Cremation is forbidden The Meal of Mercy Burial services The Presbytera Remembrance rituals Listen to...
Keeper and GatheringUs Merge Online Memorial Services
Keeper and GatheringUs, two companies that specialize in online and hybrid memorial services, are joining forces. Both companies have supported and participated in Before I Die Festivals in New Mexico in years past. Here's today's news from Mandy Benoualid, President of Keeper Memorials. Online memorial platform Keeper Memorials has acquired GatheringUs, a leader in virtual and hybrid memorial services. The acquisition is part of Keeper’s...
How to Consider Your Own Mortality: New Doyenne of Death Podcast Episode
Would you face your own mortality by building your own coffin? Dr. Jeffrey Piehler joined The Doyenne of Death® Gail Rubin to discuss facing mortality and funeral planning issues. His essay in The New York Times on making a plain pine box for his eventual cremation (see below) had generated a huge reaction. This podcast was originally recorded February 12, 2014. Dr. Piehler died peacefully on November 14, 2014, surrounded by his family and...