These resources are designed to help educate you on what your options and rights are with regard to what happens with yours or your loved one's body after death. There are stories, examples, and basic information about the modern funeral industry, along with alternative options.
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| A Family Undertaking - 2004 PBS documentary |
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What is old is often new again. Most funerals today are part of a multimillion-dollar industry run by professionals. This increased reliance on mortuaries has alienated Americans from life's only inevitability — death. A Family Undertaking explores the growing home funeral movement by following several families in their most intimate moments as they reclaim the end of life, forgoing a typical mortuary funeral to care for their loved ones at home. Far from being a radical innovation, keeping funeral rites in the family or among friends is exactly how death was handled for most of pre-20th century America. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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| Grave Matters - A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry To a Natural Way of Burial - by Mark Harris |
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sans coffin in the final season of Six Feet Under, Americans all across the country were starting to look outside the box when death came calling.
Grave Matters follows a dozen such families who found in “green” burial a more natural, more economic and ultimately more meaningful alternative to the tired and toxic send-off on offer at the local funeral parlor.
Eschewing chemical embalming and fancy caskets, burial vaults and costly funerals, people have embraced a range of natural options, new and old, that are redefining a better American way of death. The author examines this new green burial underground, leading you into natural cemeteries and domestic graveyards, taking you aboard boats from which ashes and memorial “reef balls” are cast into the sea. He follows a family that conducts a home funeral and delivers a loved one to the crematory, another that hires a carpenter to build a pine coffin. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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| Living Into Dying by Nancy Poer |
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"Here is a family who celebrated their elders, nursed them at home to die, built their caskets, honored and cared for them after death and then went out into the community to help others who want to do the same." "Every aspect of caring for the dying is in this book, from building a casket to connecting with those who have died." |
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| Natural Transitions Magazine |
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NATURAL TRANSITIONS MAGAZINE is the ONLY magazine on CONSCIOUS, HOLISTIC APPROACHES TO END OF LIFE that’s also a forum for professional end-of-life caregivers and families with loved-ones facing end-of-life transition. We are a vehicle for the alternative death care Movement. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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| When Someone Dies - The Practical Guide to the Logistics of Death by Scott Taylor Smith with Michael Castleman |
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Scott Taylor Smith, a venture capitalist and lawyer, had plentiful resources, and yet after his mother died, he made a series of agonizing and costly mistakes in squaring away her affairs. He could find countless books that dealt with caring for the dying and the emotional fallout of death, but very few that dealt with the logistics.
In the aftermath of his mother’s death, Smith decided to write the book he wished he’d had. When Someone Dies provides readers with a crucial framework for making good, informed, money-saving decisions in the chaotic thirty days after a loved one dies and beyond. It provides essential, concrete guidance on:
• Making funeral and memorial service arrangements
• Writing an obituary
• Estate planning
• Contacting family and friends
• Handling your loved one’s online footprint
• Navigating probate
• Dealing with finances, including trusts and taxation
• And much, much more
Featuring concise checklists in each chapter, this guide offers answers to practical questions, enabling loved ones to save time and money and focus on healing. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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| Caring for the Dead: Your Final Act of Love - by Lisa Carlson |
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A complete guide for those making funeral arrangements with or without a funeral director. Families, friends, and support groups who want to say goodbye in a meaningful waynot just write a big check to a funeral directorwill find detailed and practical legal information in this unique guide. By taking an active role in funeral and memorial arrangements, families can save thousands of dollars while better serving the emotional needs of loved ones. Caring for The Dead gives the legal requirements of each state, how to obtain and file permits and death certificates, explanations of cremation and embalming, burial procedures, and other necessary information. Readers learn how to shop for the best services at the most reasonable prices, while avoiding fraudulent and deceptive mortuary practices. This landmark book helps readers take control of one of life's most intimate experiencesthe final act of love for a friend or relative. |
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| Cycled Life - Alkaline Hydrolysis as an option to cremation |
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Alkaline Hydrolysis is promoted as a greener technology than cremation. This is an article about a Colorado entrepreneur who is looking to promote this technology around the US. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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| Funeral Services - Consumer Info on Shopping for Funeral Services |
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This site is a US Federal Trade Commission site with information you might find useful while shopping for funeral services. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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| Green Burials |
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This is an organization that provides information and guidance regarding green burials. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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| National Home Funeral Alliance |
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We are a group of home funeral educators, guides and advocates all across the United States who have formed a non-profit alliance for the purpose of educating the consumer about the intrinsic value of a home funeral. We also promote education and community building among home funeral guides, green funeral advocates, and all those who support the rights of families and communities to care for their own dead. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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| Natural Transitions |
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This is a local Colorado organization dedicated to how to do your own funeral and caring for the body after death. This is a useful resource for people outside of Colorado as well. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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| Neptune Society |
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The Neptune Society is a group that provides cremation and disposal of the ashes. They have locations around the country and links to the offices closest to you. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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| Science Care - Whole Body Donation |
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We each carry a gift within us - the gift of life. It is the one donation you can give to make renewed life possible for countless others all over the world. At Science Care, the need for your whole body donation is more important than ever. With the world changing around us every day, the rising advancements in medical technologies are endless. As an alternative to cremation or funerals, your no-cost donation provides enormous benefits to medical research, training and professional education for a brighter future for all. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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| Seven Ponds |
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Website set up to provide a wide array of information regarding preparation for death and dying - practical considerations, legal forms and requirements, etc. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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| Donating Your Body to Research and Education |
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This is the Colorado State Anatomical Board which you can contact in order to donate your body to medical research or education. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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| Green Caskets - Colorado |
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This is a private enterprise located in Longmont Colorado. There are many similar businesses around the country and around the world. We offer this for informational purposes only and neither Ridhwan nor the Colorado Life Service Group sponsors, recommends, or has any connection with this business. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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| Malesich and Shirey Funeral Home and Colorado Crematory |
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Offers funeral guidance, relatively inexpensive cremation, relatively inexpensive caskets which are made in the USA. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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| Natural Transitions |
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We are a NON-PROFIT RESOURCE CENTER 501(c)3 providing education on conscious, holistic, and green approaches to end of life, including family-directed home funerals.
The 2 aspects of our EDUCATIONAL WORK are our work with families and communities (presentations, consults with families and care groups, and workshops) – and OUR QUARTERLY, NATIONAL MAGAZINE. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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| Neptune Society Colorado Office |
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This is the local Denver office of the Neptune Society, an organization that provides cremation. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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| Prairie Wilderness Cemetery |
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This is a local Colorado organization that is working on establishing locations where a body can be buried in a natural way with no chemicals, no cremation, all in a biodegradable way. They also provide information about burials and the difference between "green" and the more common practices. Click here to visit the resource page. |
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