The Surprising Satisfactions of a Home Funeral | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian

The Surprising Satisfactions of a Home Funeral | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian

Two deaths within a month, the author's father and father-in-law, and two very different ways of dealing with the remains: "In life both men had been devout Catholics, but one was a politically conservative advertising man, the other a left-wing journalist; you'll have to trust me that they liked each other. One was buried, one was cremated. One was embalmed, one wasn't. One had a typical American funeral-home cotillion; one was laid out at home in a homemade coffin. I could tell you that sorting out the details of these two dead fathers taught me a lot about life, which is true. But what I really want to share is that dead bodies are perfectly OK to be around, for a while."