Explore Books on Home Funerals
Preplanning Instructions for a Home or Family-Directed Funeral:
A preplanning workbook that instructs others as to your preferences, wishes and desires:
Home or family-directed funeral instructions and forms, Special instructions regarding home ceremonies, Estate planning: important people, papers & household inventory, A guide to writing an ethical will. Practical Instructions for a home funeral:
Detailed instructions and examples to make this very personal process an empowering and fulfilling experience:
Check-off list of home funeral arrangement details,, Preparation of deceased for lying in honor, visitation and ceremony, and Preservation with ice and lifting and carrying a body. .
Legal rights, resources and instructions for filing end-of-life documentation in California
Avoid commonly made errors with these detailed instructions:
Relevant statutes and codes for home funerals Sample worksheet copies of the Certificate of Death and Permit for Disposition Step-by-step guide for filling out and filing Certificate of Death and Permit for Disposition 
Final Passages is a model project offering education for personal and legal rights concerning home or family-directed funerals and final disposition (burial and cremation). It is our intention to re-introduce the concept of funerals in the home as a part of family life and as a way to de-institutionalize death. We are dedicated to a dignified and compassionate alternative to current funeral practices.
Final Passages' director has a long history in alternative health care. Jerrigrace Lyons, a Reiki Master, Certified Trager Practioner, and founder of the project, is a Minister who also directs Home Funeral Ministry. She has been interviewed and reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Mother Earth News, SF Magazine, KRON 4, CNN Headline News to name a few and now featured in a new PBS documentary “A family Undertaking” aired nationally in 2004.
Final Passages Ordering Information
Please print, fill out and mail or fax to:
Final Passages
P O Box 1721
Sebastopol, CA 95473
(707) 823-7709
Cost of Guidebook and/or booklets(s) (price does not include shipping)
One Booklet ___________________________________________ $20.00
Any 2 Booklets Can be Purchased for ______________________ $35.00
Complete Guidebook with Booklets A, B, and C available for only __ $45.00
Add Shipping and Handling
Please include Shipping and Handling Costs
One guidebook_____ $6.50 for Media Mail or ___ $9.00 for First Class or Priority Mail
One booklet________ $4.00 for Media Mail or ____ $5.50 for First Class or Priority Mail
Add $1.50 for each additional booklet
Allow 2-3 weeks for delivery for Media Mail.
Make check payable to:
Final Passages
P O Box 1721
Sebastopol, CA 95473
.
From Library Journal
Carlson, executive director of the Funeral and Memorial Societies of America, has compiled an information-packed guide "for those making funeral arrangements with or without a funeral doctor." The book begins with a series of anecdotes that illustrates the experiences of those who have approached end-of-life arrangements in nontraditional ways. This section is followed by an overview of the funeral industry. Here readers will find information on cremation, body and organ donation, caskets, embalming, home deaths, and funerals. A substantial portion of the book is devoted to a compilation of the laws of each state. Carlson cites and summarizes the statutes governing death certificates, handling and moving bodies, reporting fetal deaths, and arranging for cremation or burial. A helpful appendix includes the Federal Trade Commission rules that protect consumers in dealings with the funeral trades. Highly recommended for public libraries.?Joan Pedzich, Harris, Beach & Wilcox, Rochester, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Many people may not realize that there are alternatives to immediately calling a funeral director when a loved one dies. In fact, if certain legalities are observed, most people can avoid the cost and impersonal involvement of the commercial funeral industry altogether and care for a deceased loved one with the kind of love and private ritual that not only extends and individualizes the care giving before death, but can also honor family history or follow a family's religious tradition. Authors Julie Wiskind and Richard Spiegal have written a moving and useful book for people who want to be involved in caring for their own dead with the kind of personal attention they devoted to their loved ones before they died. Funerals can be completely do-it-yourself events, allowing people to wash and care for the body in the comforting and familiar surroundings of home. Accepting death as a natural part of living and "normalizing" the ritual of caring for the body and arranging privately organized ceremonies is becoming more the norm among aging baby boomers in much the same way that natural birthing swept this generation at an earlier age. Coming to Rest clarifies the necessary legal paperwork, spells out many of the statutory requirements in different locations--only nine states in the U.S. require the involvement of a professional funeral director after a death--and offers a helpful and informative discussion on this sensitive subject. This book will surprise some, but it will also reassure and help guide many more to a comfortable, personalized end to the life of a loved one. --Mark A. Hetts
(Paperback)
by Julie Wiskind & Richard Spiegel
| ||||
"This little book makes it possible for people to conduct family funerals independent of funeral directors and the industry around them. Julie Wiskind and Richard Spiegel have done a great service. Their experience and point of view are invaluable." -Andrew Weil, M.D., Director of the Program in Integrative Medicine, U. of Arizona
by Nancy Jewel Poer
Few people are aware they have a choice to care for their loved ones at death and the care for the body at home afterward. Not only is it possible and legal but has often given deep fulfillment and closure for those who have done so. In addition, there are considerable financial savings. This book, abundantly illustrated, gives each practical step in the process of care and also tells many heart warming stories of families and communities that have received blessings from the dying and, in return, have honored them with this final act of love. Written in a warm and accessible style, the book includes many spiritual insights into the process of dying and our connection ot loved ones after they die.
Dealing with death often begins long before physical cessation of life and continues long past burial/cremation. The time at death and just after death is a singular time for our healing and honoring our loved ones.
Crossings has created a resource guide comprised of educational, inspirational, and practical tools for creating healing within our own lives and honoring the passage of our loved ones from this world to the next. It provides choice in aspects of in-home after-death care. Information includes procedural aspects of dealing with our dead, both legally and physically.
This resource guide contains information on planning arrangements for caring for a loved one's death or planning arrangements for the time of your own crossing.
The guide is available for $55 including shipping and handling.
Send checks to:
Crossings
7108 Holly Avenue
Takoma Park, MD 20912
crossingcare@earthlink.net
(301) 523-3033
by Pat Hogan
The true story of in-home after-death care that changed the lives of a family and a community.
The cost of the book is $21.00 with Shipping
To order by check, send $21.00 to:
Crossings
7108 Holly Avenue
Takoma Park, MD 20912
crossingcare@earthlink.net
(301) 523-3033
This provocative documentary explores the complex psychological, cultural, legal, and financial issues surrounding an important and growing trend: the home funeral movement. It profiles several families who have made the decision to forego the typical mortuary funeral and instead care for their loved ones at home. This video challenges viewers to re-examine their own attitudes toward life's only inevitability: death.
