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Funeral Homes Continue to Violate the FTC’s Funeral Rule
The latest investigations raise important questions about the efficacy of the Funeral Law and its enforcementIn January of 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent warning letters to 39 funeral homes across the country after investigators conducted the agency’s first undercover phone sweep and discovered several violations of the Funeral Rule. This law is critical for ensuring transparency and fairness, allowing bereaved families to accurately compare funeral service prices and…
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Neurodivergent Brains Don’t Grieve ‘Wrong,’ They Grieve Differently
New frameworks are needed for understanding how loss moves through different mindsAfter psychiatrist and ADHD clinical specialist Sasha Hamdani lost her father, grief didn’t just break her heart – it broke her carefully constructed systems for functioning with ADHD. In her speech at the 2025 EndWell conference, Hamdani suggested her experience taught her that neurodivergent people need to have different conversations about death and grief. “Not…
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Handmake a Tulip Funeral Wreath for a Grieving Friend
A handcrafted wreath using garden tulips can create a spirited, modern gift for a loved one suffering from a lossA gift made by hand carries warmth and intention, which can be very meaningful for someone who is grieving a loss. A tulip funeral wreath embraces a free-form, loose, natural aesthetic, offering a lovely and refreshing alternative to stiff, perfectly symmetrical wreaths found in stores. This wreath can serve as an excellent gift for a…
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Is At-Home Hospice Care a Benefit or Burden for Families?
A cardiologist described his experience with at-home hospice care for his father, inspiring a debate on hospice’s true purposeIn March 2026, Dr. Sandeep Jauhar wrote an opinion essay for the New York Times describing his family’s candid experience of his father receiving at-home hospice care. His piece sparked a larger conversation about whether America’s hospice system, particularly for at-home patients, is living up to its original purpose. The Reported Issue of At-Home Hospice…
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Designer Cremation Urns by Alessi: A Turning Point for High-End Memorial Design
Exploring how Alessi’s entry into cremation urn models signals a major shift in luxury memorial objects and contemporary designDiscussing death is often uncomfortable, but a movement toward death positivity is encouraging honest conversations. This has steered discourse about cremation urns into the mainstream. In 2010, a dinner party at Alessi’s home with the Austrian design trio EOOS led to a discussion about the evolution from the pot to the urn. That frank, death-positive…
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25 Jokey Quotes About Courage and Bravery in Facing Death
Laughing in the Face of the Inevitable, One Joke at a TimeTalking about death is rarely easy; joking about it takes a special kind of chutzpah. But humor has long been one of humanity’s favorite coping mechanisms, allowing us to stare down the inevitable with a bit of grace (and perhaps a smidge less panic.) In this collection of funny and surprisingly wise quotes about courage…
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“Grave of the Fireflies”
Beloved Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli delivers one of the saddest films of all time about grief and loss during war.Isao Takahata’s 1988 masterpiece “Grave of the Fireflies,” produced by Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli, is consistently praised as one of the best — the most emotionally devastating — animated films of all time. It’s an important watch, emotionally and morally, depicting the devastating effects of war on civilian populations, particularly children. It also features…
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“The Group: Seven Widowed Fathers Reimagine Life”
The stories of widowers with young children are shared alongside the latest bereavement research for a helpful, male-centered resourceAs clinicians working at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina, Donald Rosenstein and Justin Yopp were all too familiar with caring for patients as they neared the end of their lives. After a spate of dealing with terminally ill women who had young children at home, the doctors found themselves…
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A Walk Down the Dock
A 75-year-old man learns to find peace in the face of deathThis is Stephen’s story as told by Ellary Allis. Our “Opening Our Hearts” stories are based on people’s real-life experiences. By sharing these experiences publicly, we hope to help our readers feel less alone in their grief and, ultimately, to aid them in their healing process. In this article, we tell the story of a…
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