The Family Plot Blog
Funeral Films: The Loved One
I'm starting a series of periodic articles about movies, mostly comedies, that I call "funeral films." These films have elements related to funerals that can be instructive and helpful for starting a conversation about funeral planning. This first film, The Loved One, is all about the funeral industry. Funeral Films: The Loved One By Gail Rubin The Loved One satirizes the funeral business, including pet funerals, as well as the movie industry...
Keep the Spirit of Gratitude
http://youtu.be/gXDMoiEkyuQ This TED video featuring cinematographer Louie Schwartzberg gives us a number of reminders to live for today. Within this wonderful meditation on reasons to be grateful and thankful, there is this wonderful quote from an old man (not identified): "Do you think this is just another day in your life? It's not just another day. It's the one day that is given to you. Today. It's given to you. It's a gift. It's the only...
Engage With Grace This Thanksgiving
As the family gathers together this Thanksgiving weekend, it's an ideal time to start a conversation on end-of-life wishes, don't you think? Actually, you probably haven't thought about it. You just want to get through the turkey feast, the football games, the Black Friday shopping, and hanging out with your family without getting too deep. Having an in-depth conversation about how you or your loved ones want to be treated in a medical...
Video of Radio Interview on WJOB
http://youtu.be/zbOq0YdGzeE Did an interview on WJOB-AM on Party Line 219 with host Steven "The Preacher" Glover. Several years earlier, he had been through a near death experience, which we discussed but that isn't in this YouTube video.
Mushroom Burial Suit
Here's a great TED video with Jae Rhim Lee speaking about her Mushroom Burial Suit, an eco-friendly way to return to the earth with the help of spores that speed decomposition. Brilliant idea for those interested in green burial.
2011 Best of Show Award for A Good Goodbye
A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don't Plan to Die by Gail Rubin just won the 2011 Best of Show Award for the New Mexico Book Awards. The book also won in the Family Issues category and was a finalist in four other categories. There were 37 award categories overall. "It was such a thrill to be recognized as Best of Show in a room full of New Mexico literary luminaries such as Max Evans, Rudolfo Anaya, Anne Hillerman, and so many...
Crazy Things to Do With Ashes
Who knew you could do all these cool things with cremated remains?
Boomers: Advance Directives Not Just for the Elderly
Boomers who don't have advance directives to guide medical decision-making are asking for trouble. This is not just about end-of-life planning issues. Changes happen in the blink of an eye. An Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll found that 64 percent of boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — say they don’t have a health care proxy or living will. Those documents would guide medical decisions should a patient be unable to communicate...
Thought for the Day
While attending services for the Jewish high holiday Yom Kippur, my husband jotted down this meditation out of the prayer book. It's worth pondering any day of the year. "When we are dead, and people weep for us and grieve, let it be because we touched their lives with beauty and simplicity. Let it not be said that life was good to us, but rather, that we were good to life." -- Jacob P. Rudin Amen!
Video Review: Consider the Conversation
http://youtu.be/dHzho42Osvk Consider the Conversation: a documentary on a taboo subject presents an insightful look at the American struggle with communication about and preparation for end-of-life issues. This film provides a warm way to open the door to those conversations, with interviews featuring leaders in hospice care, religious leaders, medical professionals, and people who faced the ends of their lives on their own terms. The...
Funeral Planning Tips for Savvy Seniors
Jim Miller, who writes the Savvy Senior column, recently wrote about funeral planning tips, especially for those seniors with little money. His advice: compare providers, take advantage of the "Funeral Rule," shop for goods online, consider direct cremation or burial, and figure out how you're going to pay for your funeral. He provided a good pro-and-con examination of pre-payment and what to look for before handing over your money. He also...
Finding and Honoring Abandoned Veteran Remains
Thousands of unclaimed cremated remains of veterans have been languishing on dusty shelves at funeral homes for years, even decades. This Veterans Day, think about honoring the fallen, especially who have no one left to remember them. Last week, the unclaimed cremated remains of ten U.S. veterans, most who died in the 1970s and 1980s, were buried with military honors in the Santa Fe National Cemetery. According to the Missing in America Project...
Eco-Friendly Disposal and Green Burial
There's a great article on new trends in environmentally friendly disposal methods that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle online recently. It's titled "The greening of death - eco-friendly burials boom" by Eric Spitznagel with Bloomberg Businessweek. Jeff Edwards, owner of Edwards Funeral Service in Columbus, Ohio, wants to make one thing clear: He isn't flushing your grandmother down the toilet. That, he says, is the biggest...
Cremation Rates Accelerate
The rate of cremations in North America is expected to top 40% this year according to figures just released by the Cremation Association of North America (CANA). At its joint convention with the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), CANA projected that 40.62 percent of all deaths in the United States in 2010 would result in cremation. Final 2009 statistics put the actual number of cremations in 2009 at 930,429, as the cremation rate...
Funeral Planning Tips from Angie’s List Founder
It's good to see the word getting out to consumers that pre-need shopping around is better than waiting for someone to die before doing funeral planning. Angie's List, the popular consumer service ranking site, recently put out some great tips for consumers. I'm pleased to share their information as today's guest post. Planning a funeral is an emotionally difficult process, but pre-planning helps you avoid making rushed decisions and allows you...
Andy Rooney RIP
There are lots of folks eulogizing Andy Rooney yesterday and today. He died at the age of 92 on Friday, only one month after his last commentary on "60 Minutes" before he retired. The funeral services will be private. We can only hope there will be a public memorial service later for the legions of people who admired the man. Almost a year ago, on the November 28, 2010 program, Rooney did a commentary about living to be 100 years old. He said...
Hospice and Montana Winters
November is Hospice and Palliative Care Month. The conversation about choosing hospice care is as hard to start as the funeral planning conversation. I'm pleased to present this guest blog post by Thomas Patrick Donovan. He is the community liaison for Rocky Mountain Hospice in Bozeman, Montana and a faculty fellow in the MSU freshman honors program. Does choosing hospice mean giving up? There is a story going around that when a person chooses...
Obituary for Tom Keith
For you fans of 'Prairie Home Companion' and sound effects, this excellent news obituary appeared in the Washington Post on November 1. Tom Keith, sound-effects man on ‘Prairie Home Companion,’ dies (Courtesy of A Prairie Home Companion/COURTESY OF A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION) - Tom Keith was a virtuoso sound-effects man on Garrison Keillor's radio program "A Prairie Home Companion.” By Emily Langer Tom Keith, 64, the virtuoso sound-effects man...
Eulogy for Steve Jobs by His Sister
Here's a beautiful eulogy with lessons on living and dying. Mona Simpson is a novelist and a professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. She delivered this eulogy for her brother, Steve Jobs, on Oct. 16 at his memorial service at the Memorial Church of Stanford University. It appeared in the New York Times as an Op-Ed on Sunday, October 30. I grew up as an only child, with a single mother. Because we were poor and because...
Eyewitness to a Hindu Funeral
Ellen Leitzer had the opportunity to witness a Hindu funeral in Nepal and wrote the following incredibly detailed description. I am honored that she agreed to share her insights in today's guest post. Dear Friends, Rita died early yesterday morning from pneumonia and sepsis at Tribhuvan University’s Teaching Hospital, one of Kathmandu’s public hospitals. Her medical care and the hospital’s sanitary conditions were extraordinarily sub-standard...
Ashes Amnesty Last Call Today!
Today is the last day to register to give any cremated remains you may have hanging around your house a free final resting place, courtesy of the Catholic Cemetery Association. Back on September 30, the association announced it is offering a free program that allows families to properly bury the cremated remains of loved ones now being kept at home. The amnesty for ashes program will provide free placement in a crypt at either Mount Calvary...