Scattering – A Path with Guidance

I’ve been working with a family this week that has a very common question that I have yet to dedicate a full blog post to answering. What happens when you don’t want to “burden” your family with the obligation of disposing of your cremated remains? In modern history,...

Perceptions

I’m going to admit it right from the get-go. This post is definitely a pre-emptive explanation of what happened just a few days ago should anything come of it, and it’s also a musing about some of the hearse and funeral home going’s on as of late. Last weekend, my...

Scattering Permission Basics

I was recently contacted by our local NPR affiliate, KUOW, to answer some questions about cremation scattering and reasons behind the increase in cremation as a method of disposition. The main questions being: can you just scatter anywhere, and who do you need to get...

Crypt Maintenance

Recently, by way of my dear friend Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris, PhD, Esq. III, MBA, MSM, MSW ARNP, Total Badass, I was introduced to a very nice lady working on a story about a mausoleum in the far reaches of our United States that had developed a little problem of leaking...

Abandonment Issues

We (I) have talked myself silly about how you and your family need to communicate more about end of life arrangements, post mortem clean up, physicians orders, and all the other taboo topics that no one wants to cover as they age. As with all death topics, the one I’m...

A Doctor and Their Death Certificate

Being married to a doctor gives a person a little sliver of insight into a world that most of us otherwise wouldn’t have. I say “sliver,” because my wife is pretty strict about not bringing home work talk, unlike her husband that jabbers on endlessly about all...