Gail Rubin, The Family Plot author
Gail Rubin is the author of The Family Plot Blog. She is a PR pro, a writer and an event planner with experience creating many memorable life cycle events. She has attended, planned, and spoken at many funerals and memorial services.
As the author of “Matchings, Hatchings and Dispatchings,” an Albuquerque Tribune column on life cycle events, she found that the columns on death elicited the greatest reader response. She created this blog to provide the information, inspiration and tools to facilitate pre-need funeral planning. She is a breast cancer survivor and a member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC), as well as the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association (ICCFA).
Her book, A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die is a finalist in the 2010 Book of the Year Award in the Family and Relationships category. It has also been recognized with several other state level writing awards.
She’s also the author of A Girl’s Pocket Guide to Trouser Trout: Reflections on Dating and Fly-fishing (visit www.TrouserTrout.net) Contact her at 505-265-7215 or email Gail_Rubin@comcast.net. Follow on Twitter: @TheFamilyPlot.
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I enjoy your blog, Gail. Thanks for the great cartoons!
Comment by friendlyfuneralista March 5, 2010 @ 8:57 amReally love your blog. We have recently started blogging for our family of funeral homes in North Carolina. You’re approach to death and planning for it is wonderful. So many people don’t know how to talk about it. Your site really helps people come out of their shell and I hope that our blog can become that resource as well, from the funeral home side of things.
Comment by Caroline March 26, 2010 @ 9:52 amGreat idea Gail, I will be following with interest. As a newly trained independent celebrant I completed my 5th funeral yesterday. My first ever job was with The Terrence Higgins Trust in London and I learnt so much from many colleagues there about thinking ahead. The funerals I attended then which had been thought about in advance were so personal and meaningful that I will remember them for ever. Everyone should have a great send off that is fitting to them, their personality and beliefs.
Comment by Katie Deverell November 3, 2010 @ 7:42 amHi Gail,
Comment by Ruth November 9, 2010 @ 10:37 amI heard you on a local radio station today and wanted to tell you about how we celebrated the life of my mother when she passed in August of this year.
She was a dancer and many people had seen her on the local cable channel program, Polka Spotlight. Over the years VCRs were set up to record her and her friends,including an uncle, dancing on TV. The mortuary had a TV in the lobby/visiting area that could be seen right as soon as you stepped into the mortuary. I, of course, had set the plans for the funeral in place but still was very surprised and pleased as I stepped into the mortuary, looked straight at the TV and there was my mother dancing on the screen. what a welcome! We played CDs of old-time music over the sound system, softly of polkas and waltzes- the music that she loved. We did leave the casket open as various loved ones read poems and verses in her honor. I heard over and over what a tasteful, special, and wonderful way it was to celebrate my mother’s life. We had done the same thing for my uncle’s funeral several years before. I believe it is better to celebrate the person’s life than to focus on their passing. It is always a sad time in our lives to lose someone and we will grieve but this is sure the way I want to go when it is my turn!