I Want A Fun Funeral Blog
“I‘m in”
After a few hopeless starts for this blog post, I’m leaving it at this: Make friends with “I don't know.” Like good, good friends. BFFs. Throw a Welcome Party for uncertainty. And try to take in, deep in your bones, that all of this stuff in our lives is a complete...
For the Living
A heartbreaking story in Kentucky of a mom and her 12-year-old daughter killed in a car crash. And buried together in the same casket. It doesn't make the tragedy easier to bear, but it provides just a tad bit of relief from the darkness. It's another reminder of how...
Glitter Caskets… something for everyone
Glitter caskets, people! Not for your average corpse: What says Inhabitant Loved Life!! more than a crazy shiny, glittery box for eternity? And that, in a glittery nutshell, is why I love them. The photo is from the collection of The Glitter Coffin Company based in...
New Year’s Revelation
Happy 2020! New Year’s seems like weeks ago already. How is that possible? It seems unanimous that time is flying faster than ever. With a new year, and a new decade to boot, comes new perspectives. What’s disguising itself as a perspective, for me, is more an...
Coming to terms, a little philosophy
I think about death a lot. But unlike funerals directors or healthcare workers, for me it's mostly theoretical. I'm fascinated by the dichotomy we live in: Knowing we aren't immortal, yet mainly living in denial of it. It seems to me that if we really accepted death,...
One Hour to a Better Goodbye
I Want a Fun Funeral is ever evolving, my friends. Chalk it up to my own revelations about life and death and how we relate to it, as well as the seismic shifts that are going on in the actual funeral industry. One of my bugaboos has always been the cost of funerals....
Stones, not ashes
I love new offerings for what to do with our deceased bodies, and this latest one is solid. Literally. It’s stones instead of ashes after cremation. Or rather, stones from ashes. Parting Stone has developed a process of turning cremains (aka ashes) into smooth and...
Talk about exquisite resting places
There's more to funeral innovation than better experiences, even though that is what I am usually harping on. In fact, the seed that led to I Want a Fun Funeral was an exasperating incredulity that funeral homes themselves are still so stodgy looking, uninspiring, and...
Whatever works
Article in this week's Time magazine about collecting all your end of life paperwork. This is the practical end of I Want a Fun Funeral. You can't pull off the goodbye you want without leaving instructions for it. The list of what would ideally be in this place (file,...
Shopping for funeral services should not be torture – What you can do to help
Low sexiness factor, high practicality factor… Shopping for funeral services. As I've said in many posts, the prices of funeral services vary incredibly — by thousands of dollars for the same services. This is no joke or exaggeration. We need to shop around when...
It‘s a Funeral Revolution
Look alive, local people. If you've ever been disappointed by a funeral / left feeling empty / completely forgotten every detail / reluctantly went through the motions / fill-in-your-worst funeral moment / …then you need to come hear this. We're talking about how to...
Composting, not just for veggies anymore
For those of us following the new-fangled world of funeral offerings these days, the latest wonderment — human composting — is set to be legalized in Washington State, pending the governor's signature. Simply put, it's the “natural organic reduction” of a deceased...
“Saying Goodbye” calls for rolling up your sleeves
Envision a new kind of funeral
Hand-decorated casket obsession
Let's face it, the hand-decorated casket is the funeral personalization I love the most. It captures every aspect of better, more meaningful goodbyes:• It brings people together in a bonding and healing way• It's an activity — the doing of something together makes the...
