Home funerals could be very useful (and cost effective). Funerals are becoming so expensive in today’s world that nowadays some people are starting to find that it is too expensive to die – and therefore they have to postpone their deaths until they can save up enough money for funeral costs.
From: newbluebluewo...@yahoogroups.com [mailto:newbluebluewo...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Greg Dempsey Sent: Friday, January 25, 2013 8:14 PM To: greg dempsey Subject: [NewBlueBlueWorld] *? 2 ALL: HOME FUNERALS GROW AS AMERICANS SKIP THE MORTICIAN FOR DO-IT-YOURSELF AFTER-DEATH CARE - WHAT ARE YOUR COMMENTS?* http://www.homefuneralalliance.org/Resources/Pictures/NHFA-home-funeral-workshop_292.jpg Hi Team! *? 2 ALL: HOME FUNERALS GROW AS AMERICANS SKIP THE MORTICIAN FOR DO-IT-YOURSELF AFTER-DEATH CARE - http://www.austinnaturalcaskets.com/assets/bigtheHomeFuneral.jpg Jaweed Kaleem reports: “...Each year, 2.5 million Americans die. For the majority, about 70 percent, deaths happen in a hospital, nursing home or long-term care facility. What happens afterwards is nearly always the same, with few exceptions for religious traditions: A doctor or nurse will sign a death certificate and the body will be whisked to the funeral home, where it's washed, embalmed, dressed, and prepared for a viewing and burial. A family usually sees the dead only a few times: when they die, if there's an open-casket viewing and in the rare case when a casket is opened during burial. http://www.homefuneralalliance.org/resources/SiteAlbums/1065852/preview/what-is-HF_600px.jpg “But a small and growing group of Americans are returning to a more hands-on, no-frills experience of death. In the world of ‘do it yourself’ funerals, freezer packs are used in lieu of embalming, unvarnished wooden boxes replace ornate caskets, viewings are in living rooms and, in some cases, burials happen in backyards. http://www.austinnaturalcaskets.com/assets/David3x2.jpg “Nobody keeps track of the number of home funerals and advocacy groups, but home funeral organizations have won battles in recent years in states such as Minnesota and Utah that have attempted to ban the practice. Most states have nearly eliminated any requirements that professionals play a role in funerals. It's now legal in all but eight states to care for one's own after death. And the growth of community-based, nonprofit home funeral groups and burial grounds that are friendly to the cause point to an increasing demand. https://www.thearts.co.nz/images/artists/hero/elizabeth_knox.jpg (above): Elizabeth Knox “The reasons vary from the economic to the psychological and cultural. The average funeral costs $6,560, while a home funeral can cost close to nothing. In a society where seeing death and speaking of it is often taboo, home funeral advocates are challenging the notion that traditional funerals are anything but a natural end to life. Instead, they assert, death and mourning should be seen, smelled, touched and experienced. http://frankiely.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/boys-dec-casket2.jpg?w=510 "’There are people who get it and think it's a great idea. And there are people who have been so indoctrinated to think a different way, a less hands-on way, that they can't imagine anything else,’ says Elizabeth Knox, the founder of Crossings, a Maryland-based home funeral resource organization and the vice president of the National Home Funeral Alliance. http://www.lindaknodle.com/img/the_vigil.jpg “Knox travels across the nation to run trainings on do-it-yourself funerals and her book on her daughter's home funeral is what inspired the Kirks to do their own. Her group is one of several that have seen interest grow in recent years. They include Final Passages (California), Natural Transitions (Colorado) and Undertaken with Love (Texas). There are 61 organizations that are members of the NHFA, many of which are run by just one person. <http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&docid=fNq7q6uIH65yVM&tbnid=8RBwLWzFSKikUM:&ved=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.homefuneralalliance.org%2FDefault.aspx%3FpageId%3D1065852%26id%3D3590460&ei=MlUDUbXIB4WvigLf04HwDQ&bvm=bv.41524429,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNFgWeQgx8KdDgp_EtkYwnPzKBhAPw&ust=1359259314509708> "’A lot of people don't want to do anything with touching dead bodies,’ says Knox. ‘They consider it creepy. But it can actually be the first step to healing and acceptance of death. Slowing down the process allows all involved to absorb the loss at their own pace. It's an organic emotional and spiritual healing not available from limited calling hours at a remote location.’" (more below) https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRoKvaokwgzsmnxtqji9HymyCHwbbNZaZ02pV1P2_5sSGi2xP9L1w Home funerals grow as Americans skip the mortician for do-it-yourself after-death care – what are your comments? Greg Dempsey <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SECULARHUMANIST/> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SECULARHUMANIST/ Voice of the People ===== Home Funerals Grow As Americans Skip The Mortician For Do-It-Yourself After-Death Care <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jaweed-kaleem> Jaweed Kaleem <mailto:jaweed.kal...@huffingtonpost.com> huffingtonpost.com Posted: 01/25/2013 11:56 am EST | Updated: 01/25/2013 4:59 pm EST A little over five years ago, Alison and Doug Kirk held their 9-year-old daughter's hand as she lay on a futon in their Nashville living room, told her they loved her, and watched her take her last breath. The Kirks had known for a long time that their little girl, Caroline, would die. In her last weeks, she was under hospice care, lived off an oxygen machine, was fed through a tube, and spoke only in small murmurs. It was the normal course for a child born with Niemann-Pick, a terminal disease that gradually leads to the breakdown of the nervous system, brain and lungs. What happened after Caroline's death was anything but typical. Alison and Doug carried Caroline upstairs to the bathtub, where they washed her skin and hair, dried her limp, 45-pound body with a towel and placed her head on a pillow on the bed in her old room. Alison slipped a white communion dress on Caroline, turned up the air-conditioning and put ice packs by her daughter’s sides. She put pink lipstick on the child's paling lips, and covered up Caroline's toes and fingers, which were turning blue at the nails, with the family quilt. Caroline stayed in her bedroom for 36 hours for her final goodbyes. There was no traditional funeral home service, and no coroner or medical examiner was on hand. Caroline's death was largely a home affair, with a short cemetery burial that followed. "We had taken care of Caroline her whole life," recalls Alison, whose other daughter, Kate, has the same disease and will also have a home funeral. "Why would we give her to someone else once she died?" caroline doug <http://i.huffpost.com/gen/955256/thumbs/s-CAROLINE-DOUG-large300.jpg?13> - continued at http://tinyurl.com/au9rqlg No virus found in this message. 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