Clifton Mortuary was Jeremy Taylor's fourth employer in his sixteen-year career in the death care industry. A well proportioned, fit and relatively handsome man, Jeremy was considered personable although sometimes hard to read. Working in a profession that had been reduced to a mere trade was depressing enough by itself. There was little room for imagination and creativity but Jeremy's dedication to serving families was tempered with enthusiasm and when possible, humor. His mundane career and life however, were destined to change when he met Rhonda. Some misappropriate delegation and poor judgement, mixed with bouts of mismanagement, would result in a traumatic mistake at the mortuary. The life-altering event would be instrumental in changing him and the slumbering industry forever. Beyond Final Arrangements provides an inside look at the death care business tempered with humor, sadness, romance, sex, conflict and lawsuits.

In November 1998, millions of television viewers watched as Thomas Youk died. Suffering from the late stages of Lou Gehrig's disease, Youk had called upon infamous Michigan pathologist Dr. Jack Kevorkian to help end his life on his own terms. After delivering the videotape to 60 Minutes, Kevorkian was arrested and convicted of manslaughter, despite the fact that Youk's family firmly believed that the ending of his life qualified as a good death. Death is political, as the controversies surrounding Jack Kevorkian and, more recently, Terri Schiavo have shown. While death is a natural event, modern end-of-life experiences are shaped by new medical, demographic, and cultural trends. People who are dying are kept alive, sometimes against their will or the will of their family, with powerful medications, machines, and "heroic measures." Current research on end-of-life issues is substantial, involving many fields. Beyond the Good Death takes an anthropological approach, examining the changes in our concept of death over the last several decades. As author James W. Green determines, the attitudes of today's baby boomers differ greatly from those of their parents and grandparents, who spoke politely and in hushed voices of those who had "passed away." Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, in the 1960s, gave the public a new language for speaking openly about death with her "five steps of dying." If we talked more about death, she emphasized, it would become less fearful for everyone. The term "good death" reentered the public consciousness as narratives of AIDS, cancer, and other chronic diseases were featured on talk shows and in popular books such as the best-selling Tuesdays with Morrie. Green looks at a number of contemporary secular American death practices that are still informed by an ancient religious ethos. Most important, Beyond the Good Death provides an interpretation of the ways in which Americans react when death is at hand for themselves or for those they care about.

No event is as traumatic as the death of a child. Dr. Knapp has interviewed over 155 families who experienced such a loss to determine how they coped or failed to cope. This book presents the results of his research, shedding light on constructive measures for responding to the tragedy, and calling attention to the special needs of surviving family members. Dr. Knapp examines three types of death: death occurring after a long illness, sudden or unexpected death, and death by murder.

The author had a near-death experience in 1971 and was given certain information to bring back with her to share with others. For the past 40 years she has been working in the field of death and dying as a spiritual counselor, hospice volunteer, and is the author of several books and a major NDE web site, Beyond the Veil. She recently created a training course to teach people to be Transition Guides for those who are getting ready to leave their bodies and return to their spiritual home -- according to their own beliefs. Her message is that we don't die, only our bodies die -- but we don't need them any more. Our consciousness survives the death of our body. We are beautiful spiritual beings of light on an eternal journey and shedding our skin is part of our spiritual growth and the evolution of consciousness.How to Die Consciously is a handbook for caregivers and patients offering a simple method of meditation and guided imagery practice of remembering who we really are while still in our body by practicing to die consciously before we die physically so that when we do, we are prepared and aware of what's happening when we find ourselves out of our body -- no matter how it died. This book is for every one because we are all, after all, going to die one day, but it is especially for anyone who has received a diagnosis of an illness that has even the slightest potential to cause death and for adult children caring for their aging parents. It will help you and your family have the conversations you need to have about end of life care, last wishes and quality of life and death. It will help the person leaving reconcile their life and prepare for a peaceful transition on their own terms.You'll find information about palliative and hospice care, final arrangements, and Death With Dignity laws. You'll delve into the subject of near-death experiences and the current research into the survival of consciousness, and the ancient mysteries that gave birth to our understanding of death and the afterlife. This is no ordinary book and it is guaranteed to change your life!

Written for current and future generations of his family, Jim Messerschmitt chronicles the unlikely journey from the livestock show ring; to business meetings with two Presidents in the White House; to President of a Strategic Business Unit for Electronic Data Systems with offices in 26 countries and a payroll of a million dollars a day. Along the way there was a clumsy courtship with his only love, gin games with the titans of American industry, an inspiring walk in Christian faith, 40 marathons, and near death experiences. Written for current and future generations of his family, Jim Messerschmitt chronicles the unlikely journey from the livestock show ring; to business meetings with two Presidents in the White House; to President of a Strategic Business Unit for Electronic Data Systems with offices in 26 countries and a payroll of a million dollars a day. Along the way there was a clumsy courtship with his only love, gin games with the titans of American industry, an inspiring walk in Christian faith, 40 marathons, and near death experiences.

Life usually throws far too many curveballs to leave anyone without a wide array of fascinating anecdotes. Of all those thrown at me, I’m presenting the most significant, with this book. With my autobiographical memories I’m depicting my personal life, as a child, in my native country; Italy, as a young man and legal immigrant, in my adoptive country; the USA. Most important of all, a life about dreams I have pursued, of which many have come true and some in vain. Whereas, when people read about my experiences as an entrepreneur in the USA, it may seem to them that I have created, with my writing, a theater of dramas. It may seems that way, on the contrary, all of it it’s true. It was during that time that the ugliest of all curveballs were thrown at me, from all sides. This is the true story of my life, in two different parts of the worlds. Starting from re-enactments of family affections, of painful moments, and loving sentiments, to the most intriguing story of my life as legal immigrant and as a businessman in the USA. Particularly my involvement in the daily struggle that exists lately in the Apparel Industry in New York. An industry, which, like many others, according to my knowledge and to real facts, was destroyed and was given away to other countries, with the complicity of the corrupt politicians in Washington DC.