The Family Plot Blog
Event: April 25 Albuquerque Death Cafe
The next Albuquerque Death Cafe will be held on Saturday, April 25, 2015 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Gail Rubin’s home. At the Death Cafe, people come together in a relaxed, confidential and safe setting to discuss death and end-of-life issues, drink tea (or your favorite beverage) and eat delicious cake or cookies. If you want to attend, post a comment below to RSVP for address and directions. Or join the Albuquerque Death Cafe Meetup group...
Announcing “Mortality Minute” Radio Spots
“Mortality Minute” Pioneers New Radio Ad Approach for End-of-Life Businesses How do you get people to pay attention to advertising about funeral planning and end-of-life issues without resorting to the old “it’s a gift to your loved ones” line? “Mortality Minute” opens a bold new advertising opportunity for funeral-related businesses who need to reach local consumers. Each 60-second Mortality Minute mini-program provides a light look at serious...
News and Notes: Going Green
Between St. Patrick's Day, the arrival of the first day of spring, and the light green tinge just starting to show on the trees, we're going green this week! This past Sunday, I spoke on "Going Green with Your Final Arrangements" to a great group of folks in Santa Fe. In addition to green burial, we discussed cremation, body donation and Jewish funeral traditions. You can hear the speech for the Journey Santa Fe organization through this blog...
Journey Santa Fe on Greening Final Arrangements
“Going Green with Your Final Arrangements” was the title of my talk this past Sunday at Journey Santa Fe, a regular gathering of thoughtful folks at the Collected Works Bookstore. Among the topics we discussed: green burial opportunities in the Santa Fe area and greater 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 before...
New Funeral Professional Continuing Education Presentations
The Academy of Professional Funeral Service Practice (APFSP.org) approves thousands of hours of continuing education programs for all states. The Academy recently approved four new programs from A Good Goodbye for funeral director CEUs that are entertaining as well as educational. May and June are typically busy months for funeral directors attending state association conventions and earning continuing education credits to keep certifications...
Movies for The Next Generation of Business Owners
Check out today's guest post on the blog for the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys. It's titled "Encouraging Succession Planning with Movies." My article focuses on films to facilitate family conversations about how to plan for passing along a family business to the next generation. The films include: The 2014 movie, This Is Where I Leave You, with a scene that shows adult siblings arguing over the joint ownership and management of...
Radio Interview: Prepare to Die!!!
With humans having a 100% mortality rate, but only 25% of adults making end-of-life plans, three-quarters of our population are going to be in for a rude shock when death takes a life. The latest A Good Goodbye Radio interview on FuneralRadio.com features Peter Callan, author of one book with two different titles and cover art: Prepare to Die!!! and Other Stuff Nobody Told You and Preparing for the Inevitable. Both books provide down-to-earth...
Event: March 15 Talk on Green Burial
Journey Santa Fe is a Sunday morning gathering of progressive thinkers who explore, through presentations, issues that influence our daily lives and the lives of future generations. On Sunday, March 15 at 11:00 a.m. Gail Rubin will be the featured speaker at the Journey Santa Fe speaker series. She will discuss “Going Green with Your Final Arrangements.” Topics will include green burial, the carbon footprint of cremation, Jewish burial and what...
Lore White’s Great Self-Penned Obituary
Loré White's obituary started out "When you read this, I will be at the big beautiful golf course in the sky waiting for my tee time. What a wondrous life it has been..." What a great way to start out writing your own life story. The obituary ran a full 16 column inches in Sunday's Albuquerque Journal. She wrote about where she was born, her family members, the different places she lived and how she came to New Mexico. She wrote about her...
Preneed Funeral Planning Thoughts
This article provides some good reasons to pre-plan a funeral, especially if you know burial in a cemetery is the preferred method of disposition. I wrote this story, titled "BEFORE Someone Dies - Some Preneed Thoughts," which just came out in the March 2015 issue of Mortuary Management Magazine. The Saturday before Christmas, a woman called me desperate for help. Her 86-year-old father had just died in the hospital. She and her mother were...
CANCELLED “Doctor, How Long Do I Have?”
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED - LOOK FOR ANOTHER PRESENTATION LATER Having a serious healthcare conversation with your doctor takes effort to ensure clear communications. Learn how to ask questions and be involved in treatment decisions by watching dramatic and comedy films depicting doctor-patient conversations. Also, watch examples of patient-family interactions for tips on improving family communications around serious diagnoses,...
Emotional Wisdom Training Radio Interview
It takes laughter and a light touch to proactively address the one true inevitability of life: death. Today on Emotional Wisdom Training Radio, Gail Rubin will explain in an interview with host Kate Michels. "Gail and I are aligned in sharing the information that brings laughter to the events, incidents and accidents that we all experience during our life and death," said Michels. You can listen online or download the podcast from this link to...
Eulogies, Death Etiquette and “Fish in the Dark”
Larry David on Broadway Theater, 'Seinfeld' and Death Etiquette in Sunday's New York Times Arts & Leisure section provided some interesting thoughts on how people react to death. David was a major force behind the "Seinfeld" television program and stars in HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." He has written and is starring in his Broadway comedy "Fish in the Dark." He plays the son of a family patriarch on his deathbed. Here is part of the Q&A...
A Will for the Woods on PBS Stations Feb. 24
A Will for the Woods, the award-winning documentary about green burial, will debut on selected PBS stations on Tuesday, February 24 at 8:00 p.m. ET/ 7:00 p.m. CT (check your local listings). This 60-minute version of the documentary is airing on the America ReFramed series through WorldChannel.org. A Will for the Woods focuses on musician, folk dancer, and psychiatrist Clark Wang as he prepares for his own death and green burial. He's...
Albuquerque Death Cafe Report
Yesterday's Albuquerque Death Cafe was one of the best we've ever had. Comments included "fun," "thought-provoking," "interesting," "emotional," "needed," "wonderful," and "a stupendous gathering of folks... quite rewarding!" Twenty five people attended, with two people coming from far away Las Cruces and one person from Moriarty. While it was a little crowded in the living room and dining room at my home (Lola had to sit out in the hall), the...
A Short Memorial Service Template
Sometimes, a long, drawn-out memorial service isn't needed, but you want to say something about the deceased. Here's a structure for a short, but meaningful service that covers the "Four Rs" of a good memorial service: Recognize the death, Remember the person, Reaffirm beliefs and Release the spirit. Feel free to add readings and play music that reflects the spirit of the person who died to add depth and emotional impact. Recognize: We are...
News and Notes: Facebook Legacy Pages
After you die, you can now leave someone in charge of your Facebook account. On February 12, Facebook announced a new policy for creating Legacy pages. Stories on NPR, Time and other media, including from Facebook directly, gave the details. Previously, if a person died without someone else knowing their password, there was no way to make changes - you'd still get their birthday notices, people could make friend requests (not that they'd get a...
Event: March 10 NM Financial Planners Association
The Spring 2015 meeting of the Financial Planners Association New Mexico Chapter features Gail Rubin presenting Estate Planning Hollywood Style: How to minimize end-of-life planning resistance with humor and film clips. The entire meeting takes place on Tuesday, March 10, 2015 from 8:00 a.m. to noon at the Hilton Garden Inn, 6510 Americas Parkway, Albuquerque, NM. Attorney Vickie Wilcox will present an update on financial and health care Powers...
Psalms for Funerals: The 90th
Psalm 90: O God, You have been our refuge in every generation. Before the mountains came into being, before You brought forth the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity You are God. You return us to dust: You decreed: “Return, you mortals!” For in Your sight a thousand years are as yesterday when it has passed, as a watch in the night. You engulf us in sleep; we are like grass that renews itself: at daybreak it flourishes anew; at dusk...
A Star Wars-Themed Funeral for a Big Fan
Gordon Deacon was a huge Star Wars fan. Appropriately, he had a Star Wars-themed funeral in Cardiff, Wales, after his death at the age of 58. On an overcast day, an honor guard of Imperial Storm Troopers led the funeral procession as his casket was brought by horse-drawn carriage to the church. A vicar chanted traditional prayers as his body was carried into the church. Mr. Deacon's widow, Marilyn, 54, said: “He was mad on Star Wars. We went to...
Chaplain Karen Kaplan Speaks About Hospice, Book
Encountering the Edge: What People Told Me Before They Died gives readers a look at the inner workings of today's hospice services, as well as a glimpse at what people most care about in their final days. The author, Chaplain Karen Kaplan, was my guest on A Good Goodbye Radio and the interview is now available on FuneralRadio.com. Chaplain Karen B. Kaplan was one of the first 200 ordained female rabbis in the world. She served as a hospice...