Coming to Rest: A Guide to Caring for Our Own Dead, an Alternative to the Commercial Funeral
Many people may not realize that there are alternatives to  immediately calling a funeral director when a loved one dies. In fact,  if certain legalities are observed, most people can avoid the cost and  impersonal involvement of the commercial funeral industry altogether  and care for a deceased loved one with the kind of love and private  ritual that not only extends and individualizes the care giving before  death, but can also honor family history or follow a family's  religious tradition. Authors Julie Wiskind and Richard Spiegal have  written a moving and useful book for people who want to be involved in  caring for their own dead with the kind of personal attention they  devoted to their loved ones before they died. Funerals can be  completely do-it-yourself events, allowing people to wash and care for  the body in the comforting and familiar surroundings of  home. Accepting death as a natural part of living and "normalizing"  the ritual of caring for the body and arranging privately organized  ceremonies is becoming more the norm among aging baby boomers in much  the same way that natural birthing swept this generation at an earlier  age.Coming to Restclarifies the necessary legal paperwork,  spells out many of the statutory requirements in different  locations--only nine states in the U.S. require the involvement of a  professional funeral director after a death--and offers a helpful and  informative discussion on this sensitive subject. This book will  surprise some, but it will also reassure and help guide many more to a  comfortable, personalized end to the life of a loved one.--Mark  A. Hetts