The Family Plot Blog
Five Downsizing and Organizing Tips for the New Year
The week between Christmas and New Year's is an ideal time to review your stuff, delete the excess and organize your information. A cluttered space contributes to a confused mind. Clear your space and open up to new opportunities and possibilities in 2016. Here are five tips from Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death®, to help you start your downsizing and organizing adventure: Update Your Passwords List What? You don't maintain a paper listing of...
Christmas Luminarias in Cemeteries
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 decorated with lights of varying types. The most simple and beautiful lights are created by lunch sack-sized paper bags with sand weighting the bottom and anchoring a single votive candle. When hundreds of...
A Real Jaguar Hearse Inspired by ‘Harold and Maude’
All I want for Christmas is the Jaguar hearse featured in the 1971 cult classic film, Harold and Maude. And a real one exists! The movie Harold and Maude is a quirky, unlikely love story. Harold is a young man from a wealthy family. He is fascinated with death, attends the funerals of people he doesn't know, and makes a regular habit of faking suicides to try and rattle his self-absorbed mother. Maude is a free-spirited 79-year-old woman with a...
News and Notes: And to All, A Good Night
Welcome to winter. December 21 was the longest night of the year and the Winter Solstice. Now the days will -- slowly at first -- start to get longer. Grief and mourning is a lot like this time of year. Emotionally, it's darkness and cold. Yet in darkness we can enjoy the twinkling lights of the season. We may treasure light and life that much more, at least in small doses. Eventually, we will return to the longer days of spring and summer,...
January 16: ABQ Death Cafe
The next Albuquerque Death Cafe will take place on Saturday, January 16, 2016 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Gail Rubin’s home. RSVP through the Meetup Group or post a note in the comment section. Click here to go to the Meetup page. The address will be provided to those who indicate they will attend. 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...
![[Video]: Faking Your Funeral for the Holidays](https://i0.wp.com/agoodgoodbye.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Sad-Dad-ad.jpg?resize=329%2C229&ssl=1)
[Video]: Faking Your Funeral for the Holidays
It takes a desperate mindset to fake your funeral in order to get your children to come home for the holidays. That's sad. This ad for a German grocery store has been viewed millions of times online, to much conflicting response. The commercial starts with Dad's kids talking to him on the phone, saying they can't make it for Christmas this year. He's shown eating by himself at an empty table by a Christmas tree. That's sad. We see scenes of...
Holiday & Family-Friendly Funeral Planning Films
With relatives gathering soon for the holidays, this is an opportune time to start face-to-face conversations about each person’s ideal send-off. But it can be so awkward to start a funeral planning conversation without some kind of warm-up. Hollywood to the rescue! It’s easy to watch a funny film and start a serious conversation based on what you see in the movie. Here is a list of funny, family-friendly films that bring a light touch to a...
Free Online Funeral Home Price Lists from Parting.com
It has been hard to find an easy way to compare funeral home prices and services by market for free online. That is changing dramatically with the introduction of Parting.com. There are free resource listings which have been out there for a few years. Funeralwise.com has the Find a Funeral Home/Cemetery feature on its website. You can fill out their free Quick Plan arrangements form to get a cost estimate ranging from low to high based on...
Gail Rubin on Gaia TV’s Beyond Belief with George Noory
Beyond Belief with George Noory is an online TV interview series produced by Gaia, previously known as Gaiam TV. Certified Thanatologist Gail Rubin appeared on the program to discuss death and planning for the inevitable in the episode Beyond Belief: Let's Talk about Death with Gail Rubin. The 39-minute program covers topics such as cremation, interesting funerals Gail has attended, and how to be prepared before one "crosses over to the other...
Extraordinary Funeral Traditions from Around the World
Robin Hyde-Chambers, Managing Director with the family-owned funeral services company R. Hyde-Chambers Funeral Directors in Suffolk and Essex in the east of England, is fascinated by the many different funeral traditions you can find around the world. He describes his research that went into creating this infographic. "I have an interest in all matters relating to funerals and burial traditions, and I thought it would be interesting to explore...
Simple Things Relatives Can Do to Help With Funeral Planning
Here are some helpful funeral planning ideas from guest blogger Kayla Matthews. Death is part of life, and at some point, we all have to cope with the loss of a loved one. While the passing of a distant cousin or aunt may not affect you much personally, chances are their immediate circle of family is devastated by the loss. If you’d like to help but aren’t sure how, here are some ways you can be of assistance to those who are mourning. While...
News and Notes: Resolving to Plan Ahead in 2016
It's my firm belief humor can help prompt us to prepare for inevitable end-of-life issues. We can only laugh about death when it seems far away. The recent wave of mass shootings in the U.S. and abroad is a sobering reminder that our precious lives can be unexpectedly cut short. When we die without having made or discussed funeral arrangements or put our vital information together, our family and friends suffer more than the loss of our...
How Do You ‘Talk Turkey’ About Cremation Over the Holidays?
As the family gathers for Thanksgiving and the December holidays, it's an opportune time to "talk turkey" about end-of-life arrangements with relatives who need to know such details. For 50% of the U.S. population, that means choosing cremation. How and when do you start the conversation? "It's a heck of a lot better to discuss thoughts about advance medical directives and funeral plans over the kitchen table or during a long walk than over an...
Update on Alkaline Hydrolysis Systems
At the 2015 NFDA convention, there was a lot of interest in alkaline hydrolysis, a water-based alternative to fire-based cremation. Bio-Response Solutions, which has more than 18 years of experience making alkaline hydrolysis equipment, had a very large booth at the expo. The U.S. national average of those utilizing cremation is predicted to exceed 50% by 2016, according to CANA, the Cremation Association of North America. Many of those...
Memories of Loved Ones Memorial Materials
Memorial materials such as prayer cards, memorial programs, thank you cards, guest register books, bookmarks, photo posters and collages are yet another aspect of funeral care most families don't think about until they have to. Katy Samuels, the president and co-founder of Memories of Loved Ones, described on their website how this family-owned business got started: "On July 22, 2004 my brother Scott and I lost our friend Keith Noble suddenly....
Returning a Relative’s Ashes: Ask the Doyenne of Death
Cremated remains have a lot of emotional baggage that goes with them. You may hold onto cremated remains and feel comforted, or you may feel haunted. Because each person reacts differently to keeping cremated remains around, does it make sense to give cremation necklaces or keepsake urns containing ashes to family members? Before you divvy up a loved one's ashes among the family, consider this letter to Dear Abby published earlier this week...
Clothing for the Deceased
Clothing the dead - it takes some unique tailoring to make garments look good on someone who's lying down. Funeral directors and morticians also have the challenge of dressing someone who can't move his or her body! A.R.K. Garment Company has been in the business of manufacturing burial garments since 1928. The name comes from the last name initials of the three founders - Akerman, Rickman and Komer. Owner Tom Bearman's grandfather bought out...
News and Notes: Greening Final Arrangements, New Book, Etc.
Do you recycle and strive to save energy? If you consider yourself "green" in life, consider greening your final arrangements. This Thursday, I'm presenting an Albuquerque OASIS class on Greening Your Final Arrangements. Among the topics to be covered: green burial opportunities in New Mexico, the carbon footprint of cremation, how Jewish burial traditions are naturally green burial, donating your body to science, and what you need to know NOW...
Unique Urns at NFDA
Since the U.S. cremation rate is projected to surpass 50% nationally by 2016, there were plenty of creative cremation urns on display at the 2015 National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) expo. I've done past blog posts about some of these companies, but their innovation never stops. LoveUrns How can you make a metal urn look cuddly? That was the challenge LoveUrns president Naseem Kahn and his team faced when making a teddy bear urn for...
Memento Memorials Artistic Urns
Memento Memorials debuted their artistic, unusual cremation urns at the 2015 NFDA convention to much interest by funeral directors in attendance. Chris Harvan and his wife started the company in 2003 to create urns, keepsakes and memorials for family and friends who have lost pets and infants. Since then, they've branched out into urn product lines that feature artful design and crafting of metal, wood, concrete and other materials. They...
Creative Caskets at NFDA
It was "Caskets-R-Us" at the National Funeral Directors Association convention and expo. You may have seen previous posts about Trey Ganem's personalized caskets, and the video visits with Andrea Fernandez of Clear View Caskets and Mark Elder with Vision Casket. Here are other creative caskets that were on display at the 2015 expo: C.J. Boots Casket Company was founded by Christopher J. Boots in 1999. He was a custom furniture and cabinet maker...