A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die provides the information, inspiration and tools to plan and implement creative, meaningful and memorable end-of-life rituals for people and their pets.
Just as talking about sex won’t make you pregnant, talking about funerals won’t make you dead – and your family will benefit from the conversation.
Order your copy of A Good Goodbye here on Amazon (Affiliate Link). The book retails for $21.95.
A Good Goodbye is available for e-readers at $9.99 or less: iBookstore, Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s NOOK and more!
A Good Goodbye addresses the Baby Boomer generation with gentle humor on the vital information about funeral arrangements that most people don’t learn about until faced with a death in the family.
This easy-to-read book tells how to plan a memorial service and reception, ways to communicate the news, collect vital information before it’s needed, and write obituaries and eulogies.
It also presents background on many religious traditions, new funeral trends and creative non-religious rituals, event-planning checklists, information forms for death certificates and obituaries, and cost containment. It even covers ways to honor the death of a pet and remember deceased loved ones annually.
A Good Goodbye is a Best of Show winner in the 2011 New Mexico Book Awards, as well as winner in the Family Issues category. The book was also a finalist in the Family & Relationships category of ForeWord Reviews’ 2010 Book of the Year Award!
A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die shows you how to:
• Create a meaningful, memorable send-off.
• Avoid stress at a time of grief.
• Save thousands of dollars.
• Reduce family conflict.
• Incorporate funeral traditions for major faiths.
• Utilize new trends like green burial, at-home services, and funeral webcasting.
• Prepare advance directives, obituaries, eulogies, ethical wills, condolence cards, and thank you notes.
• Hold a pet funeral.
• And much more!
A Good Goodbye will help readers design a meaningful, memorable, healing end-of-life ritual, reducing costs and confusion while avoiding family discord and stress added to grief.
A Good Goodbye will be especially helpful for interfaith families who might not know much about their own religious traditions, let alone their partner’s. The religious funeral traditions chapter can help prompt interfaith conversations.
A Good Goodbye offers a unique opportunity to help Baby Boomers face death with the care and creativity they have embraced all their lives.
Order now on Amazon (Affiliate Link).
Praise for A GOOD GOODBYE:
“A GOOD GOODBYE has ‘heart sense’ in its how-to information that’s vitally needed before there’s a death in the family. Gail Rubin helps us face the thought of our own deaths and better appreciate the reality of life.” — Thelma Domenici, formerly the “Ask Thelma” Etiquette Advice Columnist, Albuquerque Journal
“With grace, humor, honesty, and skill, Gail Rubin shines a light on a subject that we, as a society, prefer to keep in the dark. Sooner or later, we will all need the information in A GOOD GOODBYE, a highly readable, entertaining and informative book.” — Jillian Brasch, author, THE LAST GIFTS
“Gail Rubin takes on society’s last taboo in a readable, practical manner with a light touch. It’s a great read for anyone who isn’t sure about this ‘death thing’ and how to best prepare for it.” — Joe Sehee, past Executive Director, Green Burial Council
“Kudos to Gail Rubin for pointing out the blue elephant in the corner. The earlier we can engage each other in end-of-life conversations, the better our chances for ending our lives the same way we lived them – with grace and intent. This book is filled to the brim with material to inspire those conversations.” — Alexandra Drane, Co-Founder of Engage With Grace and President of Eliza Corporation
“Gail Rubin is on a mission to demystify death care. This book represents the highest and best use of her experience and depth of knowledge on planning the ultimate in an end-of-life event, formerly known as a funeral.”
Order now on Amazon (Affiliate Link).
EXCELLENT GUIDE FOR THE GREAT GOOD-BYE!
I don’t know anyone who likes to think (let alone talk or read) about dying, but given the inevitability we all need to just buckle down and prepare! Finally, there’s a upbeat guide book that brings a light touch to the “icky” subject everyone tries to avoid.
Gail is our perky party planner (ok, so it’s for a party no one wants to go to) but hey, her humor will keep you reading and learning what most don’t learn until a crisis or death – which is a really bad time to find out! I was shocked to read that only 24% of us preplan a funeral — and less than 46% tell their family their final wishes.
Oyyy, that’s a lot of unnecessary heartache waiting to happen. I love when she says, “Just as talking about sex won’t make you pregnant–talking about funerals won’t make you dead!” Gail also includes important checklists and a free 10-page planning form downloadable from her website AGoodGoodbye.
I think it is a must-read for Baby Boomers… and well, any adult still breathin’! Gail was a dynamic guest on my radio program, CopingWithCaregiving, on May 21, 2011, which you can hear at `Listen via the archives’, segment 2.
— Jacqueline Marcell, Author of ‘Elder Rage’, International Speaker on
Eldercare and Alzheimer’s, Host of the ‘Coping with Caregiving’ Radio Show
It’s My Party
I’m not about to die any time soon. I’ve worked out that if all goes well, I have approximately another 28 years of excitement and adventure before I finally kick the bucket. In the past I’ve been diligent about keeping my will up to date and I also have a living will tucked away somewhere, but after reading Gail Rubin’s book, I decided to up the level of Instructions Upon My Death.
Both of my daughters know where to find copies of Instructions. They know what I want to have happen to my mortal remains, and where and how to find my last will and testament. They know what kind of memorial service to organize and which specific parts of it that they and their brother are responsible for. My nineteen-year old daughter has expressed strong opinions about the idea that my son will organize the food for the party. She complains that he’s not organized. Too bad. It’s my party.
Janet Shaw, Placitas, New Mexico
“Hi Pete: I wanted to let you know how much I’m enjoying the book you lent me, A Good Goodbye. In fact, I want to get my own so I can mark in it. It’s the best of the several I’ve read on the subject of preparing for death. So much stuff I didn’t know, like how much energy cremation takes and how much CO2 is emitted – hardly a green disposal. Thanks for putting me on to it.” — Bob Kaiser, New Braunfels, Texas
Order now on Amazon (Affiliate Link).