I’m please to announce that my book, A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die, is moving toward publication and will be available in the coming weeks. Those who wish may pre-order a copy at a discount TODAY. If you order before the book becomes available in mid-October, you get a 25% discount ($12, plus shipping and handling.)
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. 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 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.
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, “Ask Thelma” Etiquette Advice Columnist, Albuquerque Journal
“A GOOD GOODBYE thoroughly and impressively covers so much that families need to know about funeral planning. It’s such a valuable resource, we have several copies in our library as a reference book for those we serve.” — Chester French Stewart, Chairman, French Funerals-Cremations and the French Family of Companies
“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, 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.”