Coming to Rest: A Guide to Caring for Our Own Dead, an Alternative to the Commercial Funeral

By Richard Spiegel and Julie Wiskind

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0965759369
• ISBN13: 9780965759366
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: Dovetail Pr
• Length: 101 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Environmentally sound

An excellent book for anyone wanting helpful information about how to prepare yourself and your loved one for both death as well as handling the home made funeral. The American Way Of Death by Jessica Mitford exposed the big business of the funeral industry and this book Coming to Rest : A Guide to Caring for Our Own Dead, an Alternative to the Commercial Funeral by Julie Wiskind, Richard Spiegel does a great service to those interested in bring dignity as well as common sense to burial and cremation. It helps dispell the myth that you have to "hire out" and that only "Store bought" is legal.I encourage a few brave souls to get the book and invite a few open minded friends over and start a local support group that will provide the information needed to help people do at least some of the funeral and body preparations themself.Travel overseas and if you are smart in where you go you will discover that in Africa India South and Central America an progressive regions of Europe that people take care of their own dead a lot. That the American funeral is NOT the norm, and it shouldnt be!

What a blessing!

This book made it possible for me to fulfill my fondest wish. I started a hospice and trained volunteers, and I have seen many people through the process of dying, including several of my own family members. But this was the first time that I felt totally right about the experience of dying, from beginning to end. I am deeply grateful to the authors of this book, and their willingness to share their experience.

excellent for informing families of their options and rights

I am a hospice social worker and find this book very useful in beginning to teach patients and families their rights and options. I have found that this book helps to empower people to care for their loved one beyond death, allowing families the time to prepare to let go of the physical body after a death.

An excellent informational resource; inspirational!

"Not so long ago in this country, most families carried their own loved ones to the cemetery for burial" begins this dignified, down-to-earth, yet revolutionary text.The authors, Julie Wiskind and Richard Spiegel, began this labor of love after the death-at-home of their friend, and Richard's wife, Laura Spiegel. The first chapter, describingLaura's death, is a moving account of how her family and friends found they could fill out thefew forms, prepare Laura's body, and bring it tothe crematory in their own time, in their own car, after their own good-byes and prayers. The cost was $300; the emotional benefits, priceless.The expediency of embalming, used during the Civil War to facilitate the transportation of soldiers'bodies, has grown into a multi-billion dollar business. The funeral industry's unfortunate intervention between us and death is taken for granted, unnecessarily. Our first question after a loved one dies ought not to be which funeral director to use but whether we want a commercial funeral at all. Thoroughly researched, Coming to Rest, can help us answer this question by providing the encouragement families need to reclaim the care of their own dead as a personal and family ritual. For an hour of reading, one is rewarded with powerful and practical information: How do you lay out the body? Is it safe? What do you do for a coffin? How do you discuss your plans with hospital or other health agency officials?Coming to Rest will be of particular use to those who want an economical and personal funeral. Itmay also appeal to those with a desire to reassesthe values promoted by our consumer culture and to those who may be ready to participate more fully in the mysteries of life. From the State Funeral Regulations chart, which catalogues specific requirements for paperwork, to information about how to order or make a coffin, to the sprinkling of Richard's poetry about his loss, this book is carefully and thoughtfully compiled. Coming To Rest, A Guide to Caring for Our Own Dead deserves a place on every family¹s bookshelf.

All the practical advice you need to create a death ritual.

Carefully researched & sensitively presented, this book has helped my family deal with the impending death of a brother. It has given us the courage to dispense with the scripted formulae for death in the same way that many of us invented new rituals when we brought our children into the world. I highly recommend it to all.