The Family Plot Blog
Gearing Up for Frozen Dead Guy Days
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhBfZ2iSVEo My husband Dave and I are gearing up to hit the road to Colorado for Frozen Dead Guy Days this weekend! We're bringing five hundred copies of A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don't Plan to Die, beautiful eye-catching posters for the book and "The Newly-Dead Game," and all of our most outrageous skull-decorated clothing. The YouTube video at the top of this post shows a short talk I did...
The Party No One Wants to Plan
Have you ever gone to a party, showing up with a bottle of wine as a gift for the hosts, and found they’re not ready yet? Maybe they’re still cleaning up or putting the kids’ toys away, the food isn’t ready, or oh no, the bar’s not set up! Two attributes that set a gracious host apart from an unprepared one are the ability to organize and communicate. Most experienced party throwers know it takes some planning to put together a successful...
Elizabeth Edwards: Privacy and Her Will
Stephen Hartnett with the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys did an insightful blog post today about revocable trusts and privacy in death. He used the example of how Elizabeth Edwards changed her will just a week before she died, and how she protected her family's privacy with a revocable trust. The updated will became public for all the world to see on January 5, 2011. People who don't have wills, or have never seen one, may find...
The Newly-Dead Game Debuts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgfozBMno3Q Yesterday, with the help of a wonderful group of friends, I did a trial run of "The Newly-Dead Game" in anticipation of taking it big time at Frozen Dead Guy Days in two weeks. The general consensus: It's fun! It's educational! It's a great way to get the funeral planning conversation going! Three couples played: Lenann and Ken, Lois and Ed, and Pat and Jay. They were charged with answering "last...
Explore! New Mexico Book Review
Explore! New Mexico is a blog that focuses on the Land of Enchantment and spots of interest across state, exploring the people, places, history, and culture of New Mexico. They just posted a short book review of A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don't Plan to Die. There is one journey we all make ... the journey at the end of life. New Mexican author Gail Rubin has written a book certain to inform, enlighten, and guide every one of...
The Curve Balls of Life and Death
Four members of my immediate family passed away over the last year. In answer to your question, two were older, and two were not.
Another Joke
Recently, two widows were at lunch. When the check came, the more recently bereaved asked her friend if she could cover the bill, saying that she was a little strapped at the moment. Concerned, the friend asked, "But, you just got a $20,000 insurance settlement. What happened?" "Well," said the new widow, "expenses were high. It cost $8,000 for the funeral and another $2,000 for the casket. Then, there were $3,000 in remaining medical expenses...
Time Goes By on A Good Goodbye
Time Goes By, the respected blog by Ronni Bennett on "what it's really like to get older," just featured A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don't Plan to Die. She calls it "an excellent book with everything you could possibly want to know about burying loved ones." Under Interesting Stuff - 12 February 2011 she wrote: A Good Goodbye is filled the practical and ephemeral from the dealing with funeral homes to obituaries, customs of...
When Pregnancy and Hospice Collide
A recent online discussion at The Washington Post's website, the Tell Me About It column by Carolyn Hax, looked at a young woman's dilemma - she's pregnant, lives far away from her parents, and just completed a visit on the East Coast with her father, who has had cancer for three years. He seemed relatively well when she left. Shortly after she got home on the West Coast, her father was transferred into hospice to await the inevitable. She's 33...
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...