If you do not die suddenly from an accident, heart attack or stroke, chances are you will die a slow death from disease or simply from aging. Unfortunately, in the latter case, doctors are well trained in every possible aspect of saving a life, but little on how to treat death and dying. So, if you are diagnosed with a fatal or chronic condition, how do you talk with your doctor effectively?
Filed under: Causes of Death, Death & Dying, Grief and Grieving on October 30th, 2009 | No Comments »
Are you helping to take care of an elderly person? Many older people must take several different prescription and nonprescription drugs every day. Because these drugs often are taken during different times of the day, it can become easy for an elderly person (or even a stressed younger person) to become confused about which medication to take at what time.
Filed under: Caregivers, Patients on October 28th, 2009 | No Comments »
A community along the Ivory Coast in Africa suffered from repeated outbreaks of a human respiratory virus from 1999 to 2006. Approximately 92 percent of residents in that area manifested symptoms, and the fatality rate was 20 percent. Although you might think that humans transferred this virus, you would be wrong. The carriers were among a group of chimpanzees.
Filed under: Causes of Death, Death & Dying on October 26th, 2009 | No Comments »
Baxter, the therapy dog, provided comfort to patients, and continues – after death – to provide inspiration.
Filed under: Caregivers, Death & Dying, Grief and Grieving, Hospice, Patients on October 23rd, 2009 | No Comments »
Other than dehydration, how do people die from heat-related illness?
Filed under: Causes of Death, Death & Dying on October 21st, 2009 | 1 Comment »
This past January, the Telegraph reported on alternative funeral songs, listing ten top choices among 764 people questioned for the survey in the U.K.
Filed under: Alternatives, Funeral Arrangements, Funeral Songs, Plan Your Own on October 20th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Perhaps by adding the Shanidar plants listed above to your next funeral arrangement, you can alter history – or, at least encourage debate among future scholars.
Filed under: Funeral Arrangements, Funeral Flowers, History of Funerals, Traditions on October 20th, 2009 | No Comments »
Are you planning to adopt a child? Or, are you about to have surgery? Maybe you already lost a home to fire or flood, and you now realize how difficult it can be to replace important papers. Some items, such as photographs, may be impossible to replace.
Filed under: Estate Planning, Other Legal Matters, Wills & Estate Planning on October 19th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
In the first blog entry about Bahamian burials, you may have learned that there was a distinction among social classes and between races in life as well as in death in the Bahamas. In the second article, you may have witnessed how both Europeans and Africans influenced each other in the types of memorials reserved for the dead and the designation of a burial as permanent or transient. This article, the last in the series, shows how class defined the Bahamian burial; however, cultural influences also shaped the Bahamian burial scene.
Filed under: About Tombstones, Cemeteries, Death Care News, Graveyard Etiquette, History of Funerals, Traditions on October 17th, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Bahamian vault graves on San Salvador Island
Are you appalled by the idea that a family or community might re-use grave sites as mentioned in the previous Bahamian burial article? Or, perhaps the condition of the Bahamian cemeteries and grave sites might disturb you. If so, pick up the book, In Small Things Forgotten, by James Deetz to learn more about earlier American burials.
Filed under: About Tombstones, Cemeteries, Death & Dying, History of Funerals, Traditions on October 17th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
