Anything that requires navigation means that there is no straight line. From the cookie cutter funeral of our grandparents to the send-offs of today’s generation of rule-breakers and individualists, funerals have become opportunities for expression married to convention. Now more than ever, funeral consumers are faced with numerous options and decisions that directly affect their family members, their pocketbooks, and the environment.

This course will explore the funeral system we are familiar with today: what to expect when electing to work with a funeral home; basic protocols in hospitals, hospices, and care facilities; what information is needed to complete the death certificate and obituaries; how to design an authentic funeral service to lead yourself or with an officiant; and checklist details that often make planning a chore rather than the privilege it is. We’ll discuss how cultural expectations are changing, new methods of memorialization, why and how family-led funerals are coming back, ways to go out greener, and bringing meaning to ritual and ceremony that fulfills the true mission of funerals: to mend the tear in the fabric of our lives created by loss.