FUNERALS YOUR WAY


Book Description

Sarah Jones started her career as a surgeon in the NHS and then worked with adults with learning difficulties and challenging behaviour. Fulfilling a life-long ambition she opened Full Circle Funerals, an award-winning independent funeral director, in 2016. Sarah wrote this book because she sees the benefits of people being able to create funerals that are right for them. After reading this short book, you will be able to articulate your own wishes, have a meaningful conversation with others, and will feel more confident when arranging a funeral for someone who has died.




Saying Goodbye Your Way


Book Description

Funerary arrangements are detailed in this sensitive yet realistic guide to making the important, difficult decisions necessary when a loved one dies, or when preparing for one's own departure. The logistics of planning memorial services and other ceremonies are discussed, and frank explanations are provided regarding cremation and interment. Special emphasis is placed on helping individuals understand the options available and become informed consumers, even while making what are often difficult, highly emotional choices. Prearrangement options for individuals planning for the future are discussed in detail, including where to buy caskets and monuments and whom to notify when death occurs.




What a Way to Go


Book Description

A&E Biography meets Tales from the Crypt in this fun but respectful survey of the amazing lives and astonishing funerals of two dozen twentieth-century icons from politics, art, and pop culture. In more than 50 rare photographs and thoroughly researched profiles, What a Way to Go showcases all the colorful details of each subject's death, funeral service, and burial. From Muppet creator Jim Henson's upbeat service, attended by Big Bird, to Babe Ruth lying in state at Yankee Stadium as vendors sold hot dogs to waiting mourners--it's all here, the moving and the macabre. JFK, Notorious B.I.G., Elvis Presley, Chairman Mao, Eva Peron, the Ayatollah Khomeini, and many more find fitting tribute in this compulsively readable, visually lavish, richly entertaining celebration of our enduring fascination with the famous and the strange pageantry of their demise.




To Serve the Living


Book Description

In the “hush harbors” of the slave quarters, African Americans first used funerals to bury their dead and to plan a path to freedom. Similarly, throughout the long struggle for racial equality in the 20th century, funeral directors aided the cause by honoring the dead while supporting the living. Here is their story.




Reimagining Death


Book Description

Honor your loved ones and the earth by choosing practical, spiritual, and eco-friendly after-death care Natural, legal, and innovative after-death care options are transforming the paradigm of the existing funeral industry, helping families and communities recover their instinctive capacity to care for a loved one after death and do so in creative and healing ways. Reimagining Death offers stories and guidance for home funeral vigils, advance after-death care directives, green burials, and conscious dying. When we bring art and beauty, meaningful ritual, and joy to ease our loss and sorrow, we are greening the gateway of death and returning home to ourselves, to the wisdom of our bodies, and to the earth.




The Right Way of Death: Restoring the American Funeral Business to Its True Calling


Book Description

Funeral service is dying. Cremation rates are sky-high, new competitors pop up every day, and an entire generation of funeral home owners are considering closing shop. But a thriving future is still possible. Eric Layer paints a vivid picture of what's threatening death care and everything mortuary owners need to know about how to save it.




The American Way of Death Revisited


Book Description

Only the scathing wit and searching intelligence of Jessica Mitford could turn an exposé of the American funeral industry into a book that is at once deadly serious and side-splittingly funny. When first published in 1963, this landmark of investigative journalism became a runaway bestseller and resulted in legislation to protect grieving families from the unscrupulous sales practices of those in "the dismal trade." Just before her death in 1996, Mitford thoroughly revised and updated her classic study. The American Way of Death Revisited confronts new trends, including the success of the profession's lobbyists in Washington, inflated cremation costs, the telemarketing of pay-in-advance graves, and the effects of monopolies in a death-care industry now dominated by multinational corporations. With its hard-nosed consumer activism and a satiric vision out of Evelyn Waugh's novel The Loved One, The American Way of Death Revisited will not fail to inform, delight, and disturb. "Brilliant--hilarious. . . . A must-read for anyone planning to throw a funeral in their lifetime."--New York Post "Witty and penetrating--it speaks the truth."--The Washington Post




Confessions of a Funeral Director


Book Description

“Wise, vulnerable, and surprisingly relatable . . . funny in all the right places and enormously helpful throughout. It will change how you think about death.” —Rachel Held Evans, New York Times–bestselling author of Searching for Sunday We are a people who deeply fear death. While humans are biologically wired to evade death for as long as possible, we have become too adept at hiding from it, vilifying it, and—when it can be avoided no longer—letting the professionals take over. Sixth-generation funeral director Caleb Wilde understands this reticence and fear. He had planned to get as far away from the family business as possible. He wanted to make a difference in the world, and how could he do that if all the people he worked with were . . . dead? Slowly, he discovered that caring for the deceased and their loved ones was making a difference—in other people’s lives to be sure, but it also seemed to be saving his own. A spirituality of death began to emerge as he observed the family who lovingly dressed their deceased father for his burial; the nursing home that honored a woman’s life by standing in procession as her body was taken away; the funeral that united a conflicted community. Through stories like these, told with equal parts humor and poignancy, Wilde’s candid memoir offers an intimate look into the business of death and a new perspective on living and dying. “Open[s] up conversations about life’s ultimate concerns.” —The Washington Post “As a look behind the closed doors of the death industry, as well as a candid exploration of Wilde’s own faith journey, this book is fascinating and compelling.” —National Catholic Reporter “[A] stunner of a debut.” —Rachel Held Evans, author of Inspired




Say Farewell Your Way


Book Description

There are three situations in which you may find yourself planning a funeral and hence reading this book: OCoA loved one has passed away suddenly; OCoA loved one has been diagnosed as terminally ill; OCoYou wish to pre-plan your own funeral. Despite the fact that human beings have a 100% mortality rate, most people in Ireland act as if even talking about end-of-life planning causes people to die A funeral is both a beginning and an ending, where the end symbolises that the journey from birth to death has been completed and the beginning symbolises the recovery and renewal process for the loved ones still living. The main purpose of this book is to encourage conversation about death, dying, funerals and loss in Ireland today and, hopefully, to open your minds to the endless possibilities there are when it comes to funerals. It aims to inspire independent individuals to celebrate and take control of the last memory they will leave loved ones. "




My Funeral, My Way


Book Description

Whose funeral is it, anyway? Why, it's yours, of course! Death is one topic that many people feel dreadfully uncomfortable discussing. Planning a funeral, burial, or service for a loved one can be devastating. I believe that the attendees at a funeral, burial, or service deserve to learn about the life and character of the deceased. Wouldn't you want everyone who attended your funeral, burial, or services to know what an amazing person you were? Wouldn't you like them to walk away with more than just tears and sadness? How about if they learned more about your hobbies and interests? What if they discovered that you rescued animals, loved children, loved a particular sport, or enjoyed books, traveling, and classical music? What about the awards you received, the offices you held, the organizations in which you were affiliated. I believe that if your service was personalized, family and guests who attended might have a more intimate experience and leave with an everlasting impression of you and your life. That's why I've created My Funeral, My Way: A Journal for Those Who Would Like to Assist in Planning Their Own Funeral. REVIEWS "I found My Funeral, My Way to be a wonderful resource for families dealing with loss. How many times have I heard, "What would Mom have wanted?" or "What would Dad have wanted?" By keeping this journal, family members won't have to answer those questions, the questions are answered for them." -Carl Goldstein Goldsteins' Rosenberg Raphael-Sacks Inc. Funeral Home Southampton, PA "This book is a useful tool for aging individuals as well as en- tire families. As a nurse, I am often witness to uncertain med- ical outcomes among my patients. This book allows some sense of control at a time when many feel helpless. It is an ex- cellent resource for patients and a concept long overdue. I would recommend this book without hesitation." -Kathleen Bickings, RN "My Funeral, My Way is an amazing, easy-to-follow guide for people approaching later life or end of life, to record their gen- eral wishes succeeding death. It is extremely user friendly, and is written with a warm, welcoming tone which creates comfort. This could serve as a great initial conversation piece among mourning family members." -Amy Keiper-Shaw LCSW, QCSW, GC-C Manager of Family Services Chandler Hall Health Services 99 Barclay St. Newtown, PA About the Author Angela "Angel" Hope De Simone was born and raised in the far Northeast section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, into a family of fifteen. She's the youngest child in a baker's dozen-which includes five brothers and seven sisters, all of whom assisted in her upbringing. Ms. De Simone attended Pierce Junior College, located in Philadelphia, where she received her associ- ate's degree in business, and met her husband. After working in the business industry for over eight years, she decided to pursue her dream of helping others by becom- ing a licensed massage therapist. She has been practicing massage therapy for eighteen years. She currently resides in Newtown, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Chicky, and two children, Alyssa and Domenic. Angel is a journal junkie-been keeping one since she was seven. In her free time she loves antiquing, and arts & crafts. Her specialty is carving inspirational words Angela Hope De Simone and sayings into chairs, mirrors, etc. She has an ETSY page where you can see and purchase her original art- work! Her favorite beach destination is "Cape May." And she is known in her circle of friends for her punctuality. Angel is a very spiritual person. She owns a sixteen-year- old cat, Belle, and Denise-a retired race dog, a grey- hound, that she personally rescued. Angel is also a big fan of 80's tunes. And, yes, you will find most of this trivia, that is unique to Angel, decorating the pages of her very own Funeral Journal. This is Angel De Simone's first book.