Lately Posts

In the Before Times, I identified generally as a pretty happy camper. Some would’ve called me relentlessly hopeful. But 2020 has done a number on all of us, and I’m no exception when it comes to being stressed, exhausted and anxious. Now we’re enteri...

When do you tell people that someone important to you has died? “Mommy, Mommy!” It was the voice of my nine-year-old son, who can be pretty darned persistent even when he just wants more macaroni and cheese before soccer practice. At the time, I...

A Long-time Advocate for Dying Beautifully, and a Powerful Voice for Dying Equally.Oceana Sawyer found her vocation through an incredibly personal experience around her own father’s death, and his wish to embrace celebration as a part of that journey...

My family are big-time music lovers, each with their own preferences. But when I planned funerals for my dear Italian grandmother and my own father, it wasn’t yet a trend to play nontraditional music at a funeral service. For my grandmother, it...

A Pioneering Woman in the Funeral BusinessAmy Cunningham is a funeral director who came to her calling after a long career in magazine writing. Grief had been a topic she’d visited in academia and in her personal life. Nourished by a blended faith fa...

Don’t Make Your Family Ask, ‘Does This Spark Joy?’ If you’ve found yourself at any point blissfully origami-ing your underwear a la Japanese organizational guru Marie Kondo, you may be ready for the Scandinavian decluttering trend of “death clea...