Why Your Funeral Director Will Likely Be Female
Jan Smith was in the final semester of her training to be a funeral director when her 8-year-old nephew died after a heart transplant. Her family’s heartbreak deepened her understanding of the value of...
View ArticleWriting My Will Called for an Ice Cream Sundae
(Editor’s Note: This conversation previously appeared on the PBS NewsHour site and features Next Avenue 2017 Influencer in Aging Sheila Nevins.) Judy Woodruff: A change of tune now. For 38 years,...
View Article76-Year-Old Blogger Navigates Aging With Cancer
“It’s a shadow chasing behind you constantly,” says popular Time Goes By blogger Ronni Bennett. Her site’s tagline is “What it’s really like to get old,” but Bennett, 76, is now writing about more than...
View ArticleThe Case for Swedish Death Cleaning
Although I’ve never visited Sweden, I find myself attracted to simple, clean-lined architecture and furniture. I love Swedish pop music. And herring. Plus, I live in Minnesota, with our cold but...
View ArticleNew PBS Film Explores How We Feel About Death
Dylan Thomas’ famous villanelle urges us to “Rage, rage against the dying of the light,” not to “go gentle into that good night.” When he sent it to his editor, Thomas wrote, “The only person I can’t...
View ArticleI Didn’t Miss My Mother — Until She Was Gone
On my occasional weekends away from home, I missed my view of the Hudson River, the varying shades and moods of the water outside my window. I missed my cats. Their jelly bodies regenerated my soul and...
View ArticleWhat Do You Want for Long-Term Care?
When we have good health, we tend to think little about losing it. It’s easier and more pleasant to imagine that we will live an active and happy life until the moment we collapse of a heart attack on...
View ArticleHow to Have a Green Funeral
You may not realize this, but the common burial processes many Americans follow after death use mass amounts of materials and chemicals, most of which end up in the ground. Coming to terms with this...
View ArticleWhy I Resisted My Father’s Funeral Wishes
(This article appeared previously on Samada, a new website dedicated to end-of-life planning and caregiving issues.) My father Hank passed away suddenly nearly a year ago at the age of 65. While he...
View ArticleHave You Discussed Long-Term Care With Your Loved Ones?
Most people do not think about planning and paying for growing older and needing care until something happens. We are optimists. We think we’re so young. But conversations about our care preferences,...
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