Category Archives: Death
Ritual to Honor My Father
My father died the day after Thanksgiving in 2008. I’d known it was coming as he had lung cancer that had metastasized through his body. I was living 200 miles away and traveling even farther away for work every single … Continue reading
Movie Review: Terms of Endearment
Terms of Endearment begins with a mother’s fear that her daughter has died and ends with the reality of her daughter’s death. Love and grief are intertwined in this story that tells the story of the complicated relationship between Emma … Continue reading
Movie Review: Wit
WIT is a movie that tells the story of Vivian, a brilliant professor who is diagnosed with cancer. Throughout the movie we see how her life has been lonely as her constant companion is only literature. Her only visitor is her old mentor, who finds out by accident she is in the hospital and sits and reads her a children’s story. In her final moments, despite her DNR, her doctor undertakes aggressive resuscitation efforts and we see the sadness of her almost lifeless body undergoing poking and prodding. Continue reading
Documentary Review: The Secret Life of Death
Walter Carter Funeral Home is a 130-year-old business in Sydney Australia that is facing the economic reality of consolidation in the funeral home business. In order to stay alive, Walter Carter joins forces with another family owned funeral home, which … Continue reading
Dead White Girls
This was a course assignment for Death and the MaidenClass: Death and the MaidenOriginal Date: September 22, 2022 I will confess upfront that I am a devotee of crime shows. I watch NCIS, FBI, and the Law and Orders. I’ve also been known … Continue reading
Posted in Academic, Death, Death Professions, Feminism
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Documentary Review: How to Die in Oregon
How to Die in Oregon opens in Roger Sagner’s living room. He is surrounded by family and friends as he prepares to down the lethal drink that will end his life. Thanks to Oregon’s death with dignity law, Roger and … Continue reading
Posted in Death, Documentary, Grief, Media, Physician Assisted Suicide
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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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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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Academic: Black Maternal Mortality and Reduced Abortion Access
This paper was for a class in my thanatology programClass: African American DeathwaysDate Originally Submitted: August 20, 2023 Black women, regardless of education or wealth, have always been more likely than White women to die due to pregnancy related complications. … Continue reading
Posted in Academic, African American, Death, General
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Academia: Shamanism and the Near Death Experience
This paper was written as part of my thanatology degreeClass: Afterlife Beliefs Across CulturesSubmission date: April 10, 2023 We live in ordinary reality, a reality we are comfortable with, a mundane reality full of trips to the grocery store, paying … Continue reading