Jan 29 2025 30 mins 1
What's so damn funny about death? Nothing, most folks would say. But not Gail Rubin, Thanatologist/Death Educator.
Let's face it: death is guaranteed 100 percent. It may be the "party that no event planner wants to plan." But don't include Gail among the party poopers.
How did Gail become a death educator? That's a long story but suffice it to say that Gail didn't wake up one morning and say, "I want to be the doyenne of death." For her, it started way back when she was a college student majoring in TV and Film. She didn't know it then, but an end-of-the-year movie project would set the table.
Gail sees herself as the bridge between the general public and end-of-life businesses like funeral homes, cemeteries, and life insurance companies. She is a national speaker who uses film and humor to help break the resistance a majority of people have to talk about death. Barely a third of Americans have had an end-of-life conversation and are completely unprepared when a loved one dies and, conversely, when loved ones are left responsible for your death.
Gail talks about the many important decisions that need to be made by all of us:
- Medical care
- Life Insurance
- Funeral, if any
- Body Distribution: Cremation? Burial (if so, what kind)?
- Wills
- Power of Attorney
- Estate planning
Gail encourages us to "Shop before we drop." Get all our goodies in a row before it's too late, and family and friends are left with overwhelming questions about what to do and how to honor your wishes that were never discussed.
Have you heard about a green burial and what that involves? Water-based body distribution? Natural organic reduction? Death doula?
C'mon on. Get with it! Explore your choices. Make decisions. And then breathe a sigh of relief.
"Just like talking about sex doesn't make you pregnant," Gail says, "talking about death doesn't make you dead."
https://agoodgoodbye.com/about-gail/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfjxvL4DSS8
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gailrubinctagoodgoodbye/
https://agoodgoodbye.com/shopping/
