With funeral personalization is on the rise with more corpses look alive at their own funerals. Also in the news: Hotwire and death ads, the legacy of the single person, and an artist makes death real.
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Weekly News 3/14/2016: Corpses look alive at their own funerals.
Dead Body Palava: New Trend Of Corpses Attending Their Own Funerals
3/14/2016–360nobs.com: As weird as it might sound, funeral homes have reported bizarre requests from families wanting to pay tribute to their dead ones like they were alive. Here are real instances where the family of the deceased held a living burial-ceremony for their dearly departed… Read the full story
Related: Puerto Rico man sits on chair with a cigarette at his funeral
After a death, families have many funeral decisions to make
3/14/2016–post-gazette.com: Deborah Brown Mills sat in front of her living room hearth filled with sympathy flower arrangements, pointing to the easy chair where her husband died unexpectedly in his sleep.“We always said ‘Let’s get a will’ — we just never got down to doing it,’” she said. “My husband had a quest for life. He never thought about death. He was going to live forever.” Despite 41 years of marriage, funeral arrangements weren’t something that she and her husband, Jack, had ever talked about… Read the full story
A Hyperrealist Artist Draws The Dying To Understand Life
3/11/2016–huffingtonpost.com: Artist Claudia Bicen spent two years meeting with, interviewing and drawing individuals approaching the ends of their lives. In order to answer an oft-pondered question — “How should I live?” — she felt strongly that the dying would have the answer. So she contacted hospices across the Bay Area in California, eventually selecting nine men and women who would become the subjects of her heart-wrenching series, “Thoughts in Passing… Read the full story
Single People Worry: Who’ll Be There For Us?
3/11/2016–forbes.com: Little did I know, at age six, that I was on the trajectory of an Eleanor Rigby demise and would find myself wondering, as I do now at age 55: Who will be there to make arrangements for my funeral, or at least give me a proper burial… Read the full story
China to Spend USD 75 Million to Repair Sky Burial Sites in Tibet
3/10/2016–newindianexpress.com: China will spend about USD 75 million over the next five years on repair and protection of sky burial sites in Tibet, a traditional Tibetan funeral practice. Sky burial is a Tibetan and Mongolian tradition, whereby the dead are fed to predatory birds so that their souls may ascend to heaven. A total 156 sky burial sites will receive funding of 490 million yuan (USD 75 million)… Read the full story
Hotwire Urges You to Take That Vacation Before Dying a Sudden, Gruesome Death
3/9/2016–adweek.com: YOLO advertising tropes are going strong: In a perfect example, a new set of ads from online travel agency Hotwire urges you to take a trip … because you might just get hit by a bus. In an ad titled “Near Death,” one of four new 30-second spots by San Francisco agency Heat, a man steps absent-mindedly into oncoming traffic… Read the full story
Christine
I have mixed feelings about posing dead bodies. On one hand, perhaps it’s irreverent, on the other hand it may relieve the grief of loved ones who would like to remember their loved one as they were in life.