No-Frills ‘Green Burials’ Offer New Way to Go to the Great Hereafter

By MOLLY SMITH for Reporting Texas on Jan 6, 2017 Ellen Macdonald got the idea to open the first green cemetery in Central Texas while watching an episode of “Six Feet Under,” an HBO series about a family that owned a funeral home, in 2007. “It was the first time I ...
Continue ReadingWhen A Mother Decides To Stop Cancer Treatment And Face Death

Originally published Aug 5, 2016 By Dr. Annie Brewster and Leah Meyer for 90.9 WBUR More than a decade ago, Colleen Lum was diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer. Her children, Kyle and Kiara, were 11 and 8 years old at the time. A few months ago, after battling the disease for 13 years, ...
Continue ReadingWhat I learned from 2,000 obituaries

"If more people tried living their lives to be famous in death, the world would be a much better place." - Lux Narayan Lux Narayan starts his day with scrambled eggs and the question: "Who died today?" Why? By analyzing 2,000 New York Times obituaries over a 20-month period, Narayan ...
Continue ReadingFamily Builds Casket for Contractor Brother After His Death

March 2, 2017 by Joanna Li for InsideEdition A Washington man who died suddenly is being honored with a casket, which was handmade by his family as a salute to his legacy. Siblings of Scott Nielson, 46, gathered in the back of a Vancouver Home Depot a day before his funeral last Friday ...
Continue ReadingHow to Help a Grieving Friend

Things to Do When You’re Not Sure What to Do By Megan Devine for Huffington Post I’ve been a therapist for more than 10 years. I worked in social services for the decade before that. I knew grief. I knew how to handle it in myself, and how to attend to ...
Continue ReadingI’m Sorry to Hear Introduces the New Funerals360 Website

February 27, 2017 I'm Sorry to Hear is excited to introduce you to the all new Funerals360. Funerals360 (www.funerals360.com) is the first end-to-end online funeral planning platform where consumers can plan a funeral in advance, at the time of need, or even share funeral details and memorialize the loss ...
Continue ReadingDeath's Real Estate Troubles

There won’t be enough room to bury millennials when they die—but the alternative is way cooler By Vanessa Quirk for Quartz The death industry is about to experience a boom in business. In three years, the world’s population aged over 65 will outnumber children under 5 for the first time in history. By 2050, ...
Continue ReadingFamily accuses cremation company of running "the ultimate scam" in Colorado

Via CBS News Denver - February 10, 2017 DENVER -- As Lisa Koltun quietly thumbed through precious photos of her son Jake, she couldn’t help but remember how his 2015 death on a Colorado ski slope was made far worse by the treatment she received after he died, CBS Denver station KCNC-TV ...
Continue ReadingA Funeral May Cost You Thousands Less Just By Crossing The Street

Ellen Bethea at her home in Jacksonville, Fla. After her husband died, she paid $7,000 for her husband's cremation and funeral. She was unaware that the same company offered the same cremation services for much less. Photo: Laura Heald for NPR Story By Riley Beggin of NPR This story is part ...
Continue ReadingCarrie Fisher's urn is shaped like a giant Prozac pill, which she would've loved

IMAGE: CLINT BREWER / SPLASH NEWS By JOSH DICKEY for Mashable January 6, 2017 Carrie Fisher's legacy as a mental health advocate and her fiercely ironic sense of humor were encapsulated in one final gesture: Her Prozac pill-shaped urn. Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds, who died a day apart last week, were memorialized Thursday ...
Continue Reading