Download or read book Being Dead Is No Excuse written by Gayden Metcalfe and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2013-05-07 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hilarious guide to the intricate rituals, customs, and etiquette surrounding death in the South-and a practical collection of recipes for the final send-off. As author Gayden Metcalfe asserts, people in the Delta have a strong sense of community, and being dead is no impediment to belonging to it. Down south, they don't forget you when you've up and died-they may even like you better and visit you more often! But just as there is an appropriate way to live your life in the South, there is an equally essentially tasteful way of departing it-and the funeral is the final social event of your existence so it must be handled flawlessly. Metcalfe portrays this slice of American culture from the manners, customs, and the tomato aspic with mayonnaise that characterize the Delta way of death. Southerners love to swap tales, and Gayden Metcalfe, native of Greenville, MS, founder of the Greenville Arts Council and chairman of the St. James Episcopal Church Bazaar, is steeped in the stories and traditions of this rich region. She reminisces about the prominent family that drank too much and got the munchies the night before the big event-and left not a crumb for the funeral (Naturally some early rising, quick-witted ladies from the church saved the day, so the story demonstrates some solutions to potential entertaining disasters!). Then there was the lady who allocated money to have "Home on the Range" sung at the service, and the family that insisted on a portrait of their mother in her casket, only to refuse to pay for it on the grounds that "Mama looks so sad." Each chapter ends with an authentic southern recipe that will come in handy if you "plan to die tastefully", including Boiled Bourbon Custard; Aunt Hebe's Coconut Cake; Pickled Shrimp; Homemade Mayonnaise; and Homemade Rolls.
Download or read book The Good Funeral written by Thomas G. Long and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Before long I began to understand that showing up, being there, helping in an otherwise helpless situation was made heroic by the same gravity I had sensed when I first stood in that embalming room as a boythe presence of the dead made the presence of the living more meaningful somehow, as if it involved a basic and intuitively human duty to witness." from Chapter 1, "How We Come to Be the Ones We Are" Two of the most authoritative voices on the funeral industry come together here in one volume to discuss the current state of the funeral. Through their different lensesone as a preacher and one as a funeral directorThomas G. Long and Thomas Lynch alternately discuss several challenges facing "the good funeral," including the commercial aspects that have led many to be suspicious of funeral directors, the sometimes tense relationship between pastors and funeral directors, the tendency of modern funerals to exclude the body from the service, and the rapid growth in cremation. The book features forewords from Patrick Lynch, President of the National Funeral Directors Association, and Barbara Brown Taylor, highly praised author and preacher. It is an essential resource for funeral directors, morticians, and pastors, and anyone else with an interest in current funeral practices.
Download or read book Funeral for a Stranger written by Becca Stevens and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2010-09-01 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I have seen water move rocks. I have seen thistles break through boulders. If water and flowers can move stones, surely love can. Becca Stevens, from Funeral for a Stranger In this meditation on living and dying, Becca Stevens shares moving and hilarious stories about her life, love, friends, and our many families. This delicately formed narrative is also a window into the soul of a priest. I loved it and will hold it in my heart with gratitude for years to come. -Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why Loneliness finds connections, depair meets celebration, and fear discovers faith. Join Becca on her journey to a funeral for a stranger. God will be there. -Don Schlitz, Hall of Fame songwriter of The Gambler With elegant simplicity Becca Stevens escorts the reader to the banks of the deepest spiritual wellspring. Surely she ranks among our most gifted teachers on the things that matter most of all. -Stephen Bauman, author of Simple Truths: On Values, Civility, and Our Common Good
Download or read book Funerals to Die For written by Kathy Benjamin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-03-18 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: True stories that put the, er, "fun" back into funerals! The hereafter may still be part of the great unknown, but with Funerals to Die For you can unearth the rich--and often, dark--history of funeral rites. From getting a portrait painted with a loved one's ashes to purchasing a safety coffin complete with bells and breathing tubes, this book takes you on a whirlwind tour of funeral customs and trivia from all over the globe. Inside, you'll find more than 100 unbelievable traditions, practices, and facts, such as: The remains of a loved one can be launched into deep space for only $1,000. In Taiwan, strippers are hired to entertain funeral guests throughout the ceremony. Undertakers for the Tongan royal family weren't allowed to use their hands for 100 days after preparing a king's body. In the late 1800s, New Englanders would gulp down a cocktail of water and their family member's ashes in order to keep them from returning as vampires. Whether you fear being buried alive or just have a morbid curiosity of the other side, Funerals to Die For examines what may happen when another person dies.
Download or read book Confessions of a Funeral Director written by Caleb Wilde and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The blogger behind Confessions of a Funeral Director—what Time magazine called a "must read"—reflects on mortality and the powerful lessons death holds for every one of us in this compassionate and thoughtful spiritual memoir that combines the humor and insight of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes with the poignancy and brevity of When Breath Becomes Air. 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 act of embalming a little girl that offered a gift back to her grieving family 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 offers an intimate look into the business and a new perspective on living and dying
Download or read book Aftermath written by Ann Aguirre and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-08-30 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the war against murderous, flesh-eating aliens, grimspace "jumper" Sirantha Jax decided to go it alone. The cost of her actions: the destruction of modern interstellar travel-and the lives of six hundred Conglomerate soldiers. Now she's on trial fro dereliction of duty, desertion, mass murder, high treason...and her life.
Download or read book Celebrating Time Alone written by Lionel L. Fisher and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book affirms that it's all right to be alone, the author interweaves real-life stories with his own insights into experiences to offer counsel, inspiration and affirmation when living alone.
Download or read book Funerals Aren t for the Dead written by Marty Kovacs and published by Winepress Publishing. This book was released on 2002 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Funerals Aren't for the Dead is a handbook of handbooks on a very misunderstood subject . . . a very practical and informative view of everything from the grief we experience to saying goodbye at the funeral. This book is a rare blend of Christian wisdom, common sense, honesty, and candor. Read this book before you need it -John Hagee, Pastor, Cornerstone Church, San Antonio, Texas Do you know . . . 7 What the Bible says about death, grief, burial, and cremation? 7 What a funeral director does and what happens in a funeral home? 7 What your loved ones' wishes are concerning their funerals? 7 What to say to children in grief to avoid fear? Funerals Aren't for the Dead answers these questions and more Find out what you need to know, before anyone dies.
Download or read book The American Way of Death Revisited written by Jessica Mitford and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-11-23 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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
Download or read book Funerals Aren t Funny But Sometimes Funny Things Happen at Funerals written by J. R. Rice and published by Infinity Publishing. This book was released on 2006-06 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Good Goodbye Funeral Planning for Those Who Don t Plan to Die written by Gail Rubin and published by . This book was released on 2010-11 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rubin provides the information, inspiration, and tools to plan and implement creative, meaningful, and memorable end-of-life rituals for people and pets.
Download or read book Funeral Customs written by Bertram S. Puckle and published by London : T.W. Laurie, Limited. This book was released on 1926 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The American Way of Death written by JESSICA MITFORD and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book It Tolls For Thee written by Tom Morton and published by Watkins Media Limited. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A funeral celebrant's story about how celebrating death, and creating personalised space for grief, can enrich lives and give meaning to death. After a close encounter with death, Tom Morton realised he needed a change of pace and perspective. He decided to become the only independent funeral celebrant on the remote Shetland Islands, an unusual new profession that would lead him on an extraordinary journey into the world of the dead. In a vivid narrative that reveals the fascinating realm of the unspoken - from extraordinary undertakers and death cafés, to pilgrimages and taboos - Tom quickly learns that death and speaking for the dead requires you to think on your feet and often take a magpie approach to faith and philosophy. From Humanism to hymns, Theravada Buddhism to Star Wars theology, he discovers the importance of ritual, humour, and the empowering act of trying to find words for something beyond language itself. This is an accessible and thought-provoking guide to celebrating mortality. When grief must be an inevitable part of life, Tom shows how we can mourn together in a way that feels appropriate to the life of the one who has passed on, and ultimately cultivate a healthy attitude to our own eventual demise.
Download or read book The Right Way of Death Restoring the American Funeral Business to Its True Calling written by Eric Layer and published by . This book was released on 2020-09-21 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Victorian Book of the Dead written by Chris Woodyard and published by Kestrel Publications (OH). This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Macabre tales of death and mourning in Victorian America.
Download or read book Greening Death written by Suzanne Kelly and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We once disposed of our dead in earth-friendly ways—no chemicals, biodegradable containers, dust to dust. But over the last 150 years death care has become a toxic, polluting, and alienating industry in the United States. Today, people are slowly waking up to the possibility of more sustainable and less disaffecting death care, reclaiming old practices in new ways, in a new age. Greening Death traces the philosophical and historical backstory to this awakening, captures the passionate on-the-ground work of the Green Burial Movement, and explores the obstacles and other challenges getting in the way of more robust mobilization. As the movement lays claim to greener, simpler, and more cost-efficient practices, something even more promising is being offered up—a tangible way of restoring our relationship to nature.
