This book explores lessons learned about life, death, love and loss. It is a practical guide to rethinking death. It discusses life and living, as much as death and dying. It's a reflection on the beauties, blessings and tragedies of life, the exquisite agony and ecstasy of being alive, and the fragility of everything we hold dear. It's as simple and as complicated as that.

Neely Crenshaw has bittersweet memories of playing football for the Messina Spartans. Without a doubt, his career as the Spartans? quarterback was the pinnacle of his glory days, but his contentious relationship with Coach Eddie Rake taints his memories of the experience. Eddie Rake is man who is impossible to fully love or fully hate; his ?boys? have memories of running miles in the stifling August heat and being yelled at mercilessly by their coach,...

"Ceremonies for honoring the departed are crucial parts of our lives, but few people know where our traditional practices come from--and what they reveal about our history, culture, and beliefs about death. In Last Rites, author Todd Harra takes you on a fascinating exploration of American customs around death, burial, and remembrance"--Dust jacket flap.

Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for the dead. In rural Indonesia, she watches a man clean and dress his grandfather's mummified body, which has resided in the family home for two years. In La Paz, she meets Bolivian natitas (cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls), and in Tokyo she encounters the Japanese kotsuage ceremony, in which relatives use chopsticks...

Discusses funeral rites practiced in the past in different parts of the world and how through archaeologists we have come to know about them.

Felix Bush, a Tennessee hermit, is either feared or hated by most of the people that live in the town. One day, he gets the idea to throw one big bash before he kicks the bucket. While he is still alive and kickin' he plans his very own rollicking funeral party.

"In the year she served as a chaplain in a hospital 'death ward,' Dana Trent accompanied more than 200 people -- and their families -- on their passage from life to death. Dessert First gathers those stories and lessons, as well as others from her journey with her dying mom, to illuminate the complexity of death and grief, and how we all might better prepare for a "good death." Dessert First is a deeply personal, touching, and sometimes humorous look...

Examines the customs and practices related to burial that have existed from ancient times to the present.