Author Archives: raine.clara.shakti
Memorials: Smailes Cemetery
Address:17102 Stanaford Road, Danese, WV 25831 Date of Visit: June 13, 2024 One of the things that I love about traveling is finding small cemeteries along country roads and wandering through them to check out the history of a place. … Continue reading
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Book: What the Dead Know
True crime aficionados know that medical examiners, like the late great Dr. Donald Mallard (Ducky) on NCIS, talk to the dead and the dead talk back. It is not unusual when watching an episode of NCIS to hear Ducky, or … Continue reading
Posted in Book, Death, Death Professions, Media
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Memorials: Knollwood Mausoleum
Knollwood Cemetery is an almost 100 acre rural/garden cemetery established in Mayfield Heights, OH in 1908. The first burials were bodies transferred from the Erie Cemetery in downtown Cleveland and the first new internment is in 1910. The mausoleum was … Continue reading
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Academia: Recap of the Last Days
This was written as part of a death and dying course at Western Michigan University. Original Submission Date: April 10, 2020 Overview Luck played a significant part in physically surviving the Holocaust. Some lived because they were deemed healthier than … Continue reading
My Interest in Afterlife Beliefs
This was written as part of my coursework at Marian University, where we were assigned to write about our interest in the afterlife. Original Submission Date: March 10. 2023 One moment the rise and fall of Luke’s chest signified he … Continue reading
Academia: Letter to Myself
This was an assignment for a class in death and dying. Original Submission date: September 4, 2019 Dearest Raine, As stereotypical as it might sound, I’m staring death in the face but choosing to turn around and look back over … Continue reading
Academia: Shamanism and the Near Death Experience
This paper was written as part of my thanatology degree Class: Afterlife Beliefs Across Cultures Submission date: April 10, 2023 We live in ordinary reality, a reality we are comfortable with, a mundane reality that we are comfortable with. However, … Continue reading
Books: All the Living and the Dead
When I think of people who work with the dead, I think of people who work in funeral homes, including funeral directors and embalmers, police detectives and that’s about it. However, in her entertaining book All the Living and the … Continue reading
Posted in Book, Death, Death Professions, Grief
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Memorial: God’s Little Acre, Newport
As a Midwesterner, I grew up believing that slavery only happened in the South and that the northern states, especially New England, were all abolistionists at heart. That changed when I started working on a project in Rhode Island. I … Continue reading
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Personal: The Thought of Losing Wendy
Wendy is a mulish, grey, bossy, opininated American Bully who for some strange reason has completely captured my heart. I fell in love with her six years ago when I decided we needed another dog and we went to City … Continue reading