The Family Plot Blog
Military Disposition Bill in NM
The New Mexico House of Representatives has passed a bill designed to ensure that every person serving in active-duty military receive burials in accordance to their wishes. It's funeral planning for those who don't plan to die, but their lives are on the line. Currently, any family member, spouse or even ex-spouse can make decisions about final arrangements for military personnel, and they may not make choices the person would have wanted. The...
Saving Money on Funerals
The Canton Repository (Ohio) just ran two articles about how to save money on funerals. The stories about funeral planning ran in their newspaper on Sunday, February 6, 2011, and these articles appeared online yesterday. Yours truly was quoted, along with Joshua Slocum, executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance. Here are the first few paragraphs of each article. Click on the headline to read the whole story. Final Arrangements -...
Presbyterian Funeral Traditions
This post highlights general funeral practices for Presbyterians. The actual practices of individuals, families, and congregations may vary. The Presbyterian Church (USA) is the result of at least ten different denominational mergers over the last 250 years. There are approximately 3.6 million adherents in the United States. The body is rarely viewed, but the family may do so at a visitation event at the funeral home before the funeral. The...
Frozen Dead Guy Day Grand Marshals
News from the Nederland Chamber of Commerce about Frozen Dead Guy Days! A trio of Boulder filmmakers is coming up the canyon to help celebrate the region’s most celebrated subzero senior citizen. After 20 years of hard work, first creating award-winning documentary films and then creating the world-class Boulder International Film Festival, they will find themselves the toasts of the town at the upcoming Frozen Dead Guy Days in Nederland. Their...
Crestone Colorado Open Air Funeral Pyres
The Associated Press beat me to the story about the open air cremations in Crestone, Colorado, probably the only place in the United States where you can be cremated on a funeral pyre. I interviewed Stephanie Gaines a few months ago, and hadn't written it up yet. You have to be a resident of Crestone for at least six months before you can take advantage of their open air cremation option. Some of the story, as it appeared on WashingtonPost.com:...
PBS Frontline Program: Post Mortem
Heads up on a television special of interest: Frontline: Post Mortem. The show is airing this coming Tuesday, February 1 at 9:00 p.m. (check your local listings). A description from PBS: Every day, nearly 7,000 people die in America. And when these deaths happen suddenly, or under suspicious circumstances, we assume there will be a thorough investigation, just like we see on CSI. But the reality is very different. In over 1,300 counties across...
The Good Funeral Guide Reviews A Good Goodbye
Charles Cowling, author of The Good Funeral Guide, based in the U.K., just gave A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don't Plan to Die a nice review on his blog. He says the Brits have a lot to learn from U.S. funeral customs and Jewish funeral practices. In the U.K., cremation is widely used and their "crems" are so busy, it could take three weeks to process a body. Cowling said, "Much of Gail's book, sad to say, is not relevant to...
A Different Frozen Dead Guy
I'll be speaking and playing "The Newly-Dead Game" with folks at Frozen Dead Guy Days in Nederland, Colorado on March 4 to 6, 2011, but I just read news about another frozen dead guy. Well, I can't tell from the story if it's a guy or a gal. Today's Albuquerque Journal has a story about human remains found in a chest freezer. A couple cleaning a vacant house in Eddy County (southern New Mexico) discovered the remains while clearing out the...
The Immortal Jack LaLanne, Dead at 96
Today, a tip of the hat to Jack LaLanne, pioneering fitness guru, who died on Sunday at the age of 96 from respiratory failure due to pneumonia. LaLanne popularized the idea of working out and eating right and started what is believed to be the U.S.'s first health club, in Oakland, California in 1936. Living and dying will never be the same. LaLanne came to prominence in the 1950s with an early morning TV exercise program geared to housewives....
Freeze The Day for Frozen Dead Guy Days!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Om1KWxyK-w It’s the hottest ticket in town: Frozen Dead Guy Days, a wild and wacky celebration of all things dead and frozen, gets underway in Nederland Colorado March 4-6, 2011. And if you attend, you can come play "The Newly-Dead Game" with me! The event features coffin races, a parade of hearses, a Polar Plunge, the Brain Freeze Ball, frozen turkey bowling and salmon tossing, a frozen T-shirt contest, and new...
Medicare End-of-Life Counseling Disappears Again
How fast the changes have come these past few weeks regarding the Medicare provision to reimburse doctors who discuss the options for how patients want to be treated in their final days. The New York Times story on December 26 announced a Medicare provision to encourage end-of-life conversations during annual physical exams being instituted by regulation January 1. Then a “death panel” hue-and-cry erupted, crying foul since the provision had...
Winter Storms Complicate Funeral Planning
As if funeral planning on the fly wasn't stressful enough, here's a story about bad winter weather postponing burials in New Jersey. From The Record newspaper: WOODLAND PARK, N.J. (AP) — Funeral professionals say the weeks after Christmas are the busiest of the year. There are theories: The elderly and infirm muster the will to hang on through the holidays. Some people are depressed after the holidays. Winter brings colds and flu, which can...
The Funeral for Christina Taylor Green
Christina Taylor Green, the 9-year-old girl killed in the Tucson shootings last Saturday, was mourned at her funeral yesterday. An Associated Press story detailed many of the event's elements that moved the thousands in attendance. Here are details from that article: TUCSON - The casket for Christina Taylor Green seemed too small to hold the grief and despair of the 2,000 mourners who packed into St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church on Thursday to...
Films on Seniority with Funeral Planning
A new L.A. Times story by Steven Zeitchik looks at some recent, and not so recent, films that examine seniority and mortality. Some of these films, like "Get Low," even touch on the topic of funeral planning! From the story: LOS ANGELES - For years, the movie business has blown past older audiences. Could the breezes finally be changing direction? Hollywood is, of course, still persistently, obsessively interested in young audiences. Yet in...
Arizona Bans Funeral Protests
To head off funeral protests by "those people" at the Westboro Baptist Church, Arizona legislators quickly approved emergency legislation on Tuesday. Quick as in within 90 minutes - the Senate's committee hearing took just three minutes. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed the legislation Tuesday establishing “funeral protection zones” to keep protesters away from the memorial services for the victims of Saturday’s shooting in Tucson. The law will...
The Family Plot Named a Top Funeral Website
YourFuneralGuy, a respected blogger on funeral issues with the consumer in mind, recently came out with his list of top 10 funeral websites. Congratulations to My Last Song by Paul Hensby (#1), and The Good Funeral Guide Blog by Charles Cowling (#2), both based in the U.K., and (#3) Death Reference Desk, which gives an academic perspective on funerals, death, dying, and the news. The Family Plot Blog was #4 on the list. YourFuneralGuy said, "To...
Immortality and Cyberspace
There's a very interesting New York Times Magazine story by Rob Walker titled "Cyberspace When You're Dead" that is now online. It's got plenty of food for thought about pre-planning and communications to family and friends - Facebook and otherwise. Here are the first few paragraphs: Suppose that just after you finish reading this article, you keel over, dead. Perhaps you’re ready for such an eventuality, in that you have prepared a will or...
YourFuneralGuy Names A Good Goodbye #1 for 2010
A GOOD GOODBYE IS NUMBER ONE! Respected funeral blogger R. Brian Burkhardt, YourFuneralGuy, just posted about his top picks in the best funeral books of 2010. A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don't Plan to Die by yours truly, Gail Rubin, was his number one pick. High praise from professionals in hospice, funeral service, clergy, as well as general readers is also coming in. If you've had a chance to read it, your comments are...
Green Burial Online Planning Tool
Here's some news on funeral planning for those who plan to go green with their burials. The Green Burial Council (GBC) announced it has launched the first online planning tool designed to allow families to identify and work more closely with funeral service providers offering eco-friendly options. Available in an easy-to-use writable PDF format, the document guides consumers through a series of questions that helps them clarify their end of...
Alkaline Hydrolysis – An Excerpt from A Good Goodbye
A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don't Plan to Die is now available! Here's a small excerpt from the chapter titled "We Can Do That? New Trends in Death Care" about alkaline hydrolysis. A New Eco-Friendly Disposal Method While not in widespread use by funeral homes yet, there’s a relatively new process that liquefies the body into a coffee-colored sterile solution that can be safely disposed of in water or on land without concern...
Skeletons in the Closet: The L.A. Coroner Store
Skeletons in the Closet is a fun and funky gift shop run by the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. "We're dying for your business!" is the shop's slogan, and unfortunately, according to an article in the New York Times, it's true. Business has been slow. Body bags go for $20. Yellow crime scene tape is $6. Toe tags are normally $5, but they were sold out this month. The merchandise comes in a white plastic shopping bag that says "Los Angeles...