Almost every week I get an email from someone who’s received bad news, and doesn’t quite know how to tell the kids. That’s bad enough.
But worse, far worse, is dying without taking care of the kids. And by that, I don’t simply mean providing them with enough money to make it through college. I mean [...]
Naturally, we’re all looking for ways to acquire happy endings. To most people this means not dying. Or maybe dying very, very old and only in our sleep. However, in California, the home of happy endings, three entrepreneurial spirits (among them a notary and the owner of the Steward-Pearce Mortuary in Long Beach) managed to make a bundle [...]
Dear Readers,
For months I’ve been arguing that A) everyone needs a “Living Will.” And B) no one needs a lawyer to write that Living Will.
But Marc Levine, a brilliant Maryland attorney, begs to differ. And maybe he’s right. After all, the most important thing a Living Will can do is ensure its own implementation. That’s [...]
“Why all these revolting euphemisms???” one British reader comments in a lengthy email, from which I’ll just quote a few passages. “The famous woman [Jade Goody] who appeared on the telly? Can’t they simply say, ‘She died’?
Oh no!
“They keep saying, ‘She lost her battle with cancer.’
“Or try this: the other day my elderly uncle died, [...]
“I always thought death was a terrific idea for a book,” Charlotte Hays tells me. And Hays ought to know. She and her co-author, Gayden Metcalfe, wrote the extremely funny, “Being Dead is No Excuse: the Official Ladies Guide To Hosting the Perfect Funeral.”
By “perfect” Hays and Metcalfe mean a funeral with great food and [...]
I know, I know. We like to feel assured of certain things: that we’ll have enough money saved to see us through old age (questionable, these days); that our our health insurance will cover whatever illnesses come our way (even more questionable..)
And that our heirs won’t have to cover our funeral costs. For that reason, lots [...]
They used to call it “assisted suicide”; but I understand from certain lawyer friends who are at the forefront of the battle that this is no longer an acceptable term. Terminally ill people in desperate straits who wish to shorten their lives are not really committing suicide, in the opinion of my lawyer friends. And [...]
Dear Readers,
Every once in a while a great book comes along, and I’d like to make note of its most vital points. Jane Brody, the New York Times columnist, has just brought out her “Guide to the Great Beyond.” I can’t recommend it enough!
One of the best passages concerns Living Wills — those documents that [...]
Everyone asks this question at some time or another: hospice care which no one seemed to know anything about 20 years ago is now on the minds of anyone with a grave illness — or a terminally ill friend or relative.
But as with any other service, there are hospices to seek out and others to avoid. [...]
My initial reaction to home funerals, when I first heard about them was simple, direct, and pretty infantile: Yuck.
But over the last year, especially since I”ve been exposed to the horrifying practices of certain funeral directors, I’ve learned better. About the strongest and most compelling case for doing it yourself was made in this month’s issue [...]
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Posted on January 24th, 2009