The Family Plot Blog
Frozen Dead Guy Days Movies!
Look out, it's time for Frozen Dead Guy Days 2013! This weekend is the third time I bring The Newly-Dead Game® to this wild and wacky celebration of all things dead and frozen. It's the perfect place to laugh in the face of death and help start funeral planning conversations. The event starts Friday night with Grandpa's Blue Ball (freezing cold costumes encouraged) and runs Saturday and Sunday with music, drinking, a parade of hearses, coffin...
Let Your Light Shine is a Winner!
"Let Your Light Shine," my International Contest speech for our Area 22 Toastmasters International contest this past weekend, was awarded first place! It was so exciting to win! Now I get to go on to the Division B contest, to be held on March 23. If I win first place there, the competition advances to the District 23 level, at the spring conference in Lubbock, Texas. You can read a slightly different version of the speech in an earlier "Let...
Let Your Light Shine
Just be yourself - Let your light shine. Isn’t that every mother’s best advice? However, being different – creative with a sense of humor – sometimes got me into trouble. In junior high, I had an unusual fashion sense. Sometimes I’d wear all white to school, which caused the tough girls to taunt me. I had this fabulous leather tooled purse from Mexico that my grandmother gave me. Those chicks considered it weird. One day, I was walking down the...
Jewish-Christian Dialogue Colloquium Coming March 5
When I was in 8th grade, a Catholic classmate asked me why the Jews killed Jesus. This was news to me! I always thought the Romans were responsible for the crucifying Jesus. The Second Vatican Council documents issued in 1962 were supposed to change that opinion. Yet as of 1972, the message hadn't gotten through to that young girl. Now 50 years later, the Jewish-Christian Dialogue (JCD) is holding its Spring Colloquium with the topic "50 Years...
Children in Cemeteries
There's a good letter to Dear Abby about cemeteries and how parents should supervise their children when they visit. Good advice from both the writer and Dear Abby! DEAR ABBY: Please use your wide reach to educate well-meaning parents about how their children should behave when visiting cemeteries. I'm a funeral professional who takes pride in helping families honor their heritage and transition from grief to recovery. I especially enjoy...
Info on Facebook and Death
There's a great Mashable article on Facebook and death - "How 1 Billion People Are Coping With Death And Facebook." Wonder what happens to your profile when you die? Make sure someone can find your password information, or your family could be in a heap of trouble! A few good tips from the story: What Happens After We Die? So what happens to all those suddenly abandoned profiles? Their fate could go one of four ways: The profile remains...
Funeralwise.com TV Body Count Study Says It’s Deadly Out There
The funeral planning website Funeralwise.com has come out with it's second TV show body count study - and baby, it's deadly out there! The bad news - the body count is higher than it was for the first study, and the number of funerals shown for all of these deaths is next to nil. Out of more than 1,500 dead bodies counted, only 11 funerals were observed by the study. The primary cause of death for humans (as opposed to zombies or vampires) was...
Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander
If you haven't yet read the bestselling book Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander, here's a little taste of what it's about. I gave this talk at Albuquerque Challenge Toastmasters, an advanced club for professional speakers (and those who want to be!). Spoiler alert! There is information in this talk from the end of the book that might affect how you read it for the first time. And this is a book that should be read several times! It's...
Friday Funeral Film: Little Miss Sunshine
Yes, the delightful comedy Little Miss Sunshine (2006 - rated R) does have funeral film lessons. It shows some of the paperwork involved with death, transporting a body in your own vehicle (illegally) and how prearranged funeral plans can be transferred to other funeral homes. And it starts out in Albuquerque! Here's some of the synopsis from IMDb.com: In Albuquerque, Sheryl Hoover brings her suicidal brother Frank to the breast of her...
BBC TV: The Art of Looking Death in the Face
"How do we begin to talk about death? Death doesn't answer back. The Grim Reaper's not big on conversation." That's how reporter Michael Smith started a piece on art and death on The Culture Show on BBC TV. He continued, "Death, after all is a guess, a great unknown, the one blank canvas that awaits us all. How do we imagine the unimaginable?" He visits a long-established funeral home and the Wellcome Collection, known for exploring the...
OASIS and Osher Class Updates!
Good news if you were on the wait list for the OASIS cremation talk! They've secured a larger venue and opened it up to more attendees! And don't wait to register for the three Six Feet Under classes at UNM's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in March. Here's more information about both programs. Ashes to Ashes, Dust in Your Face: OASIS Talk on Cremation Issues Tuesday February 19 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm - Everything you wanted to know about...
Church Women United Talk
On Friday, I had the honor of speaking to more than 50 women at the monthly Albuquerque Church Women United meeting. The title of the talk was "A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don't Plan to Die." Among the high points: Comparing Monty Python's "Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition!" to The Princess Bride's Inigo Montoya's "Prepare to Die." Dr. Eben Alexander's key messages from his best-selling book, Proof of Heaven. Jesus is...
FAQ on Shipping Bodies Overseas
The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) recently posted a Frequently Asked Questions page on shipping bodies internationally. If you've ever wondered what you need to know this is a great page to visit. You can also find answers to other shipping questions on this area of the NFDA website. It provides concrete answers to these questions: What documents are needed to send to another country? What documents and procedures are needed to...
Friday Funeral Film: Waking Ned Devine
By Gail Rubin For those who want to win the lottery, Waking Ned Devine provides the reminder you never can tell when your number(s) will come up. As a funeral film, this delightful 1998 comedy shows a beautiful living memorial service scene. Jackie O’Shea and Michael O’Sullivan are best friends in the tiny, remote Isle of Man village of Tullymore. They are both lottery fanatics....
CNBC Shows ‘Death: It’s a Living’ Tonight
The funeral blogs are all a-twitter about tonight's CNBC documentary "Death: It's a Living." It airs at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, with CNBC’s Tyler Mathisen going inside the $17 billion-a-year “death care” industry. Here's the PR info from CNBC: Death isn’t just a certainty -- it’s an industry, where sympathy and profits go hand in hand. In this one-hour documentary, CNBC tells the fascinating story of a business, which everyone confronts yet few...
New FTC Funeral Rule Opinions
There are some new rules on the books that funeral homes and consumers need to know about. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the government entity that oversees The Funeral Rule. This is a set of rules designed to protect funeral consumers that has been in place for about 30 years. They issued some opinions interpreting the rules. Plus, learn more from the National Funeral Director's Association (NFDA) about how funeral homes may impose...
Going Out Your Way at Burger King
A personalized funeral that included a funeral procession stop at Burger King was recently in the news. Remember, it's your funeral. Have it your way! York, PA - A Pennsylvania fast-food fad had one whopper of a funeral. Family members say David Kime "lived by his own rules," so it's only fitting he'd have it his way on the way to the cemetery. The hearse carrying the 88-year-old York man led his funeral procession through a Burger King...
Recycled Cemetery Flower Dresses
Now here's a cool use of spent silk flowers from the cemetery: high fashion! These images were part of an Art in Stiches blog post by Susan Lenz, creative fiber artist. In 2010, she participated in a fashion show of recycled garments. Her entry was a dress created from recycled silk flowers and leaves from local cemeteries. She did NOT take flowers from graves, she rescued discarded arrangements from dumpsters and trash cans. (And there are...
Restricting Flowers in Cemeteries Sends Wrong Message
Is it wrong for cemeteries to remove flowers to keep things tidy? In yesterday's Albuquerque Journal, columnist Leslie Linthicum wrote about a policy change at the Catholic cemeteries run by the Catholic Cemetery Association, titled Flowerless Cemetery Feels 'Cold'. The Catholic Cemetery Association, an independent agency that manages two Catholic cemeteries in Albuquerque and one in Santa Fe, describes its mission to the living on its website:...
Friday Funeral Film: Hannah and Her Sisters
Woody Allen’s classic comedy Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) is an unlikely funeral film, as no one actually dies. But it’s instructive about living and dying. Allen shines at his hypochondriac best as Mickey, who obsesses about death and whether there’s an afterlife. Mickey is bothered by a ringing in his ear and undergoes numerous tests. He’s convinced he has a brain tumor. When it turns out to be nothing, he’s relieved, but experiences an...
NPR’s Losing Our Religion Series
This week, NPR is running a special series of stories titled Losing Our Religion. The content has serious implication for people facing loss, as today's installment showed. This series shows why Certified Celebrants are a growing trend as officiants for funerals and memorial services. After Tragedy, Nonbelievers Find Other Ways to Cope looks at the clash between atheists and the religious in the face of death, especially tragic, untimely ends....