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If You Have Five Seconds to Spare

~ Then I'll Tell You the Story of My Life

If You Have Five Seconds to Spare

Category Archives: Funerals

“I cannot explain it but I wept”

January 4, 2015

One man and his two sons were tasked with the inconceivable work of burying 132 children after a school massacre in Pakistan.

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If a man is buried and no one is there to see it, did he really die?

September 22, 2014

Imagine this: Your son has died, but you know only when. You don’t know where he died, or how. He …

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An unexpected place to find beauty

July 29, 2014

A recent blog post by uber-popular funeral director Caleb Wilde (author of “Confessions of a Funeral Director”) resonated with me. …

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Cancer, and other secrets

June 4, 2014

I enjoy speaking to book clubs because I love the wide-ranging discussions that result after smart, engaged people have read …

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Where’s the most unusual place you’ve been for a memorial service?

May 8, 2014

  When I grew up in Waseca in the 1970s and ’80s, I don’t think I ever went to a …

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Why I didn’t become a funeral director

January 12, 2014

At one point, I briefly thought about becoming a funeral director. Since Dad was a gravedigger, and I spent hours …

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Digging graves in extreme cold

January 6, 2014

Minnesota is experiencing some of its coldest temps in almost 20 years. My phone is showing -20 degrees F right …

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Last Man Standing

December 30, 2013

I saw this today on Caleb Wilde’s Confessions of a Funeral Director Facebook page, and I have to admit, it …

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Mandela’s funeral

December 6, 2013

Just a day after Nelson Mandela’s death was announced, few official details about remembrance ceremonies and funeral are available. But …

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Survey of most recent funeral costs

October 8, 2013

The National Funeral Directors Association released a survey that shows the average price of a funeral in the U.S.: $8,343, …

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Twitter Updates

  • @anikawriter Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I'm Dying; Jesmyn Ward, Men We Reaped; Marjane Satrapi, Chicken With Plums. I love biography! 42 minutes ago
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  • Congratulations, @MichaelaGoade! twitter.com/IndianCountry/… 1 day ago
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