New Resources Support NFDA’s Consumer Education Initiative
For Immediate Release: March 10, 2021
The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) has launched, through its Remembering A Life consumer education initiative, two new resources for individuals and families who want to learn more about the value of a funeral, remembering a life, beginning the grief journey and supporting others who are grieving a loss. The Remembering A Life Podcast and Remembering A Life Book Club offer new and engaging ways for family members and friends to explore how they can pay tribute to a loved one and begin to mourn.
“During the past year, the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic has united us in death and grief,” said Christine Pepper, CEO, National Funeral Directors Association. “It has also inspired conversations about life, death and how people want to be remembered. The Remembering A Life Podcast and Remembering A Life Book Club provide the spark needed to continue these important discussions about honoring loved ones in meaningful ways.”
“Both of these resources,” continued Pepper, “can be used by funeral professionals for free and are perfect for engaging with families in the communities you serve. Whether you share Remembering A Life Podcast episodes on social media or host a related event or book club in your funeral home, I encourage you to make the most of these new tools so we can keep the conversation going.”
Remembering A Life Podcast
The Remembering A Life Podcast (www.RememberingALife.com/podcast) features conversations with end-of-life professionals sharing their expertise and experiences related to remembering a life, grief, and healing after a loss. Hosted by former media personality Holly Ignatowski, this monthly podcast is available at RememberingALife.com/podcast and wherever podcasts are available.
The podcast launched in March 2021 with two episodes focused on the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic:
COVID-19 – A Year of Loss: Remembering Loved Ones, featuring guest Dr. Sara Murphy, certified thanatologist and death educator (Release Date: March 10, 2021)
COVID-19 – A Year of Loss: Virtual Memorials, featuring guests Barry Koch and Jason Zamer, TG Beyond (tgbeyond.com) (Release Date: March 24, 2021)
Both episodes invite listeners to reflect on their losses, the grief they’ve experienced and how they can remember their loved ones in meaningful ways.
The April podcast episode will feature guests Bob Prout and Julia Prout, Prout Funeral Home, Inc., who will share their expertise about green funerals and natural burial. Prout Funeral Home in Verona, New Jersey, has been a leader in sustainable funeral service practices for decades.
Future podcast episodes will feature a variety of voices from death care and the end-of-life continuum, including grief experts, funeral professionals and people who have experienced personal loss.
Remembering A Life Book Club
Perfect for book lovers of all ages, the Remembering A Life Book Club (www.RememberingALife/bookclub) features resources for readers who would like to learn more about remembering a life and the grief journey by reading classic and/or modern literature. The Remembering A Life team, working with end-of-life experts, has hand-selected fiction and nonfiction titles that will comfort, inspire and educate, written by thoughtful authors who can relate to the challenges of grieving and empathize with those who are mourning a loss.
Recommended reading, a book of the month, book reviews and discussion prompts help guide readers, whether they hold an in-person or virtual book club, or simply want to personally reflect on what they’ve read. Reader notes alert readers to triggers, such as sudden loss, suicide, the death of a child or overdose, to help ensure readers are aware of sensitive content that could influence their selection of a book. In addition, a recommended reading list for children provides suggestions for even the youngest mourners.
Funeral professionals can learn more about using the Remembering A Life Podcast and Remembering A Life Book Club in their communities – and download a free idea guide – by visiting www.nfda.org/RememberingALife.
To learn more about the Remembering A Life Podcast (www.RememberingALife.com/podcast) and the Remembering A Life Book Club (www.RememberingALife.com/bookclub), visit the Remembering A Life website (www.RememberingALife.com). To be among the first to learn about new podcast episodes and book club resources, follow Remembering A Life on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
About Remembering A Life
Remembering A Life (www.RememberingALife.com) provides educational tools to help families understand the value of a funeral, plan a meaningful service and begin the grief journey following the death of a loved one. Resources include the Remembering A Life website (www.RememberingALife.com), a podcast, book club, blog, conversation cards and thoughtful gifts for grieving family members and friends. Remembering A Life is a consumer education initiative of the National Funeral Directors Association. Follow Remembering A Life on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
About NFDA
NFDA is the world’s leading and largest funeral service association, serving more than 20,000 individual members who represent nearly 11,000 funeral homes in the United States and 49 countries around the world. NFDA is the trusted leader, beacon for ethics and the strongest advocate for the profession. NFDA is the association of choice because it offers funeral professionals comprehensive educational resources, tools to manage successful businesses, guidance to become pillars in their communities and the expertise to foster future generations of funeral professionals. NFDA is headquartered in Brookfield, Wis., and has an office in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.nfda.org.
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Contact: Jessica Koth, 262-814-1536, jkoth@nfda.org