The Family Plot Blog
Funeral Flowers Joke
A new business is open and one of the owner’s friends wants to send him flowers for the occasion. They arrive at the business site and the owner reads the card: “Rest in Peace.” Understandably, the owner is angry and calls the florist to complain. After he tells the florist the obvious mistake and how angry he is, the florist replies, “Sir, I’m really sorry for the mistake, but rather than getting angry, you should imagine this. Somewhere there...
![[Video] A Good Goodbye TV on Preplanning Funerals](https://i0.wp.com/agoodgoodbye.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/DVD-Cover.jpg?resize=365%2C250&ssl=1)
[Video] A Good Goodbye TV on Preplanning Funerals
A Good Goodbye TV, the only television series devoted to discussing funeral planning issues, is coming to YouTube on The Family Plot channel. Host Gail Rubin, CT, interviews experts in a range of end-of-life areas on what you need to know BEFORE there's a death in the family. The first episode is all about pre-need funeral planning. The guests interviewed are Barbara Stewart, Community Liaison, and Mark Ballard, Director of Sales, both with...
David Bowie’s Lessons on Dying
Rock star David Bowie proactively planned for his death - something only about 25% of the population does. On January 10, 2016, at the age of 69, he had a gentle death at home, with palliative care controlling the symptoms of his liver cancer. His loved ones were with him at the end. He is a role model for us all on planning for end-of-life. Many people with advanced cancer don't plan to die. Yes, hope for a cure is vital. And yet, despite...
How Much Mercury is in Your Mouth?
Your dental fillings can harm the environment if you choose cremation for your final disposition, because there's mercury in them thar amalgams. How much mercury? A study completed by the University of Minnesota Dental School gives the surprising answer. Mercury is a naturally occurring element in our environment. You'll find mercury emissions in volcano eruptions. It's also generated by man-made activities - mostly gold mining, coal...
Resolving to Get End-of-Life Organized?
If one of your New Year's resolutions was to get organized, consider including organizing for end-of-life issues -- since we never know when that's going to happen (*STRESS*!). Not to fear, A Good Goodbye has lots of free resources to help you. If you haven't downloaded the free 10-page planning form from the website, sign up through the News & Notes box on the right side of the home page. You'll get immediate access to your choice of a...
March 11-13: Frozen Dead Guy Days!
The 2016 Frozen Dead Guy Days festival in Nederland, Colorado will, as always, feature a parade of hearses, coffin races, and a polar plunge. In addition to all the other festivities, Gail Rubin will be there to emcee three rounds of The Newly-Dead Game® and present continuous showings of "Grandpa's in the TUFF SHED," the documentary that tells the strange but true story of how Bredo Morstoel became the Frozen Dead Guy. The festival,...
Feb. 21: A Taste of Honey Jewish Funeral Traditions Talk
The 13th annual A Taste of Honey, the Albuquerque Jewish community's stimulating educational event, offers the opportunity to savor Jewish life at its best. The event, which takes place on Sunday, February 21, 2016 from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. features a stellar keynote speaker and ten breakout sessions with outstanding speakers in five topical areas: culture, history, music, spirit/soul and international intrigue. The keynote speaker at 10:00...
Five Good Reasons to Downsize Your Stuff
You don’t have to be old or dying to downsize. When you’ve lived in the same place for a decade or two or three, stuff accumulates. We get attached to pieces of clothing, books, knickknacks, photographs, papers, all sorts of objects. It’s a challenge to embrace simplicity. Not many reach the level of hoarding, where your possessions crowd out the opportunity to live a normal life or entertain guests in your home. That’s living dangerously....
Mortality Minute Video: Jewish Burial = Green Burial
Want to engage your audience's curiosity about end-of-life issues? Mortality Minute radio spots are now available as online video spots, branded for the sponsoring organization! Funeral service or cremation providers, cemeteries, estate planning attorneys, hospices, and insurance agencies can all benefit from investments in these short, informational videos. Each 60 second spot expands to 90 seconds with the introduction and follow-up mention...
Feb. 13: Laughing and Learning End-of-Life Workshop
The Conscious Aging Network of New Mexico presents Laughing and Learning: A Practical End-of-Life Workshop with Gail Rubin, Certified Thanatologist Workshop Description: Most people aren’t comfortable with their mortality – only 25% of us do any end-of-life planning, such as advance medical directives and pre-need funeral planning – even though humans have a 100% mortality rate. That leaves 75% of us unprepared and devastated, not IF but WHEN...
January 23: It Doesn’t Have to be Expensive to Die
Looking for ways to minimize funeral costs? Come out for a free, enlightening talk by Gail Rubin, CT, The Doyenne of Death®, titled, "It Doesn't Have to be Expensive to Die: Affordable Funeral Planning." The event will take place on Saturday, January 23, 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. at the Cherry Hills Library, 6901 Barstow NE, Albuquerque, NM. The talk is the third in a series of four presentations, "Begin the New Year by Thinking about The End,"...
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...