title: Coming to Rest: A Guide to Caring for Our Own Dead, an Alternative to the Commercial Funeral
author: Julie Wiskind
description: 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. <i>Coming to Rest</i> 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. <i>--Mark A. Hetts</i>
zlib_text: 3 1111 01780 6124
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  BY
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  CARLSON
  
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  http://www.archive.org/details/caringfordeadyouOOcarl
  
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  Brodan Co.
  Cat. # 55
  1 37 00
  Pnnted in USA
  Upper Access^ Inc.
  Hinesburg, VT 05461
  
  Caring for the Dead: Your Final Act of Love
  Copyright © 1998 by Lisa Carlson. All rights reserved.
  Portions of this book appeared in Caring for Your Own Dead,
  Copyright ® 1987, Upper Access, Inc.
  Printed in Canada
  Upper Access Books
  P.O. Box 457
  Hinesburg, VT 05461
  800-310-3820
  Woodblock illustrations by Mary Azarian
  Cover design by Lily Gardner
  Permission to Reprint: We are happy to be quoted. Persons wishing
  to reprint a paragraph or two of material which is original to this book
  may do so if credit is given. We would appreciate
  it if you would send
  us a copy of the publication in which you use