The Family Plot Blog
Funeral Home Gifts Cap Panels and Tribute Blankets
In February, 2006, George Clark’s company Pure Country Weavers was commissioned to create a tapestry blanket in tribute to the late Coretta Scott King. The tribute blanket, featuring an image of Mrs. King, was to be presented at her funeral the next day. They rose to the challenge and delivered the custom-made photo tapestry within 24 hours. After that experience, Clark envisioned a new line of textiles his family business could produce -...
The Living Urn Planting System
There are a number of biodegradable urns for cremated remains out on the market, with some that take a further step of promising a tree will grow from those ashes. However, seed germination can have a high failure rate. It takes more than a seed in cremated remains to successfully grow a tree. At the 2015 ICCFA expo, The Living Urn company introduced a growing system that ensures a healthy tree grows from the cremated remains. The company...
Event: New Hampshire Funeral Directors Association Meeting
Tuesday, June 23 and Wednesday, June 24 Gail Rubin is the keynote speaker at the summer meeting of the New Hampshire Funeral Directors Association. She will lead two sessions, “Jewish Funeral Traditions on Film” and “The Funeral Director on Film.” Jewish Funeral Traditions on Film Jewish traditions regarding death and dying, the funeral, the treatment of the body, burial, mourning, and annual remembrances are very different from Christian...
How to Mail Cremated Remains
Did you know the U.S. Postal Service offers the only legal method of shipping cremated remains domestically or internationally? FedEx won't do it, nor will the United Parcel Service. The USPS Priority Mail Express® Service will send the ashes of a person or a pet where they need to go. A few tips to know before you head to the Post Office: You'll need to pack the remains in two containers - an inner container and an outer container (i.e. a box)...
Religious “Nones” and Celebrant Services
Here's today's guest blog post I wrote for the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys. Funeral Celebrants: What are They and Why Use Them? By Gail Rubin, CT The use of funeral celebrants is growing, and you and your clients need to know about them. Why? According to a 2015 study by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life, 56 million Americans have no religious affiliation, making “nones” the second largest religious...
Event: May 22 Civitan Talk
On Friday, May 22 from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m., Gail Rubin speaks to the Sandia Civitan club's weekly meeting. The title of her presentation is "Everything I Know About Funeral Planning I Learned From My Wedding." Visitors are welcome to join the fun and buy your own breakfast at Le Peep Restaurant, 2125 Louisiana Blvd. NE. For more information, contact Marc Kwasman at 505-821-4657 or (cell) 505-358-5371.
Distinctive Causes of Death in the U.S.
Distinctive ways to die in the United States take many forms. Distinctive mortality can be caused by accidental discharge of firearms... disorders of the kidneys... syphilis... influenza... unspecified acute lower respiratory infections... inflammatory diseases of female pelvic organs... other and unspecified events of undetermined intent and their sequelae (pathological conditions resulting from disease, injury, therapy, or other trauma). A...
Sanctuary Reserve Stores Cremated Remains
Unclaimed cremated remains can languish in a back room for years. Even families that plan to claim the remains of a loved one don't get around to picking them up any time soon. What's a funeral home to do? And if the thought of keeping a family member's cremated remains around your house gives you the heebie-jeebies, but you plan on doing something with them eventually, where can you keep them safely stored? Sanctuary Reserve provides interim...
Open to Hope Video on Death Cafes
At the annual Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) conference in April, Drs. Heidi and Gloria Horsley with the Open to Hope Foundation conducted interviews with the death educators in attendance. In this YouTube video, Dr. Heidi Horsley interviews Certified Thanatologist and Death Cafe pioneer Gail Rubin about the Death Cafe movement. The objective of the Death Cafe is “To increase awareness of death with a view to helping...
News and Notes: Free eBook on Memorial Services
As a celebrant, over the past few months I've been working with the fine folks at In The Light Urns to write a free eBook on making creative memorial services. Celebrating Life: How to Create Meaningful Memorial Services with Templates and Tips is now available. It's full of good information and you can download the 97-page eBook for free at this webpage. Please download a copy and let me know what you think! I will be doing a print version of...
Review: The Soul Sitter’s Handbook
If there's a family member on hospice, before that terminally ill person dies, The Soul Sitter’s Handbook: What to do when your loved one is dying can be a great resource for both the family and the patient. Written by Stacey Canfield with Candace Conradi, The Soul Sitter’s Handbook provides sensitive guidelines on how to be present and supportive in the face of the dying process. The book is an outgrowth of an online community...
Peggy Battin on A Beautiful Death
Last Friday's symposium at New Mexico State University, "A Beautiful Death... What will you choose?" featured Margaret "Peggy" Battin, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Medical Ethics, at the University of Utah, presenting the keynote speech. Your faithful correspondent took copious notes to share with you. As a philosopher and bioethicist, Peggy Battin has worked for decades to defend...
CremainGem Makes Photos and Jewelry with Remains
I've seen lots of options for enshrining cremated remains, but making them into ceramic photo tiles is a new approach I hadn't seen before. Like other companies, CremainGem can make jewelry with your loved one's remains, but they can also make a picture with them, a unique keepsake to be sure. CremainPhoto permanently affixes pictures, art, and/or words onto a CremainGem - a round or square mineral comprised of cremated remains. A new exhibitor...
NMSU Symposium a Big Success!
On Friday, May 1, 436 people registered to attend "A Beautiful Death... What Will You Choose?" The Dean’s Health Symposium was held by New Mexico State University’s College of Health and Social Services. At lunch, Gail Rubin, CT, facilitated the largest Death Cafe held in the world to date. Dr. Donna Wagner, the interim Dean of NMSU's College of Health and Social Services, was very pleased with the turn-out and responses to the speakers and the...
Event: May 20 OASIS Class on Religions and Funeral Traditions
To learn what you need to know about funerals for different religious traditions -- Catholic, Jewish, Native American, various Christian denominations, and more - check out Gail Rubin's OASIS presentation on "Religions and Funeral Traditions." The event takes place on Wednesday, May 20, 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Albuquerque OASIS offices, 3301 Menaul Blvd NE, Suite 18. The class is $8 plus a one-time $10 processing fee that makes you an...
Event: May 16 Albuquerque Death Cafe
The next Albuquerque Death Cafe will be held Saturday, May 16, 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Gail Rubin’s home. Albuquerque was the site of the second Death Cafe held in the United States – the first one west of the Mississippi! 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 all about an interesting, unstructured conversation – open and free-flowing with...
Memorial Ceremonies for Cremation: Free eBook
In 2015, 50% of those who die in the U.S. will be cremated. Thousands of families don’t know what to do with their loved ones’ cremated remains or how to create a memorial service. A new eBook, Celebrating Life: How to Create Meaningful Memorial Services, with Templates and Tips, provides all the answers. The difference between a funeral and a memorial service is the presence of a body. Cremation offers flexibility and creativity to those...
A 400-Person Death Cafe!?
This Friday, the largest Death Cafe in the world to date will take place in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Four hundred people have registered to attend the Dean's Health Symposium held by New Mexico State University's College of Health and Social Services. The free one-day seminar, "A Beautiful Death: What will you choose?" will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday at the Las Cruces Convention Center, 680 E. University Ave. The event, which will directly...
Tile Artisans’ Personalized Granite Urn Marker
You expect to see memorial markers in a cemetery. Surprisingly, they are now showing up in people's gardens, too. The growing rise in cremation gives regular folks the flexibility to give the cremains of beloved people and pets a dignified final resting place in their backyard. At the 2015 International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association (ICCFA) convention, Tile Artisans Digital Imaging introduced a granite memorial marker topped with...
Value Caskets from Sauder Funeral Products
Sauder Funeral Products is all about value: They manufacture laminated wood caskets that look like fine hardwood but cost much less. Sauder Woodworking Company was founded in 1934 as a maker of church pews and furnishings. The Ohio-based company has grown to offer a wide range of furniture for homes, businesses and institutions. You'll find many of their laminated furniture products in Target stores. Seven years ago they started making caskets...
Fingerprint and Cremation Jewelry from NMD
As cremation rises in popularity, a wide variety of cremation jewelry is being offered through funeral homes. At the 2015 ICCFA convention, New Memorials Direct displayed their cremation, fingerprint and photo jewelry designed to hold tiny amounts of cremated remains of people and pets. They also offer non-ash-holding styles of jewelry that can be laser engraved with fingerprints, signatures or other memorial motifs. In this video, Michelle...