Funerals

Monday

Kara Kennedy

How hidden fees spiraled out of control 

Last week, a friend was halfway through a Hollywood wax when she complained to her beautician about stubborn hairs that were often missed. “That’ll be extra,” she was told. Apparently now the outcome of a Hollywood — famously meaning that your entire vagina is left completely bare — depends on what the beautician you have at the time can be bothered to do. She paid the money. What’s worse is that she didn’t even recount this story to me with pure, incandescent rage. When she finished talking and saw me red-faced and flapping my arms about, she laughed calmly and said, “It happens all the time now.”  Tragically, this does happen all the time. Last week, I went to Rome and decided that I’d get my hair done for the trip. A treat, I know.

hidden fees

Friday

Ericka Andersen

The growing tragedy of unclaimed bodies must be addressed

This holiday season, thousands of recently deceased bodies will be stored in morgues and funeral homes, their loved ones either non-existent or unaware of their passing. My own mother-in-law, whom my husband was estranged from, was nearly one of them. We found out that she died in August, but only discovered her passing after my husband did an in-depth search of her name and paid for the information months later. The phenomenon is a sad and growing tragedy that should be addressed and remedied so that these lives are honored in the way each person deserves in death. An estimated 1 percent of bodies go unclaimed in hospitals and morgues each year in the United States, which translates to about 34,000 people across the nation in 2020 alone.

unclaimed bodies

Thursday

Cockburn

Style blog rates Meghan Markle’s funeral ’fits

Whisper it — but Cockburn can’t help but love a funeral. Old churches, black clothes that take a few inches from the waist, the spread is always great and the wake is single-handedly the best after-party anyone, dead or alive, could ask for. But there are a few rules. The first, one that should be glaringly obvious, is not taking smiling selfies for Instagram. Now, Cockburn knows that for a funeral such as Queen Elizabeth II’s, photos are unavoidable. But it seems that the people at Meghan’s Mirror, the style blog devoted to Meghan Markle, are lacking in basic etiquette. A little over a month after the death of the Queen, Meghan’s Mirror has splashed photos of Meghan’s outfit at the events surrounding the Queen’s death on their blog's homepage.

meghans mirror blog

Tuesday

Katya Sedgwick

The pagan rites of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

When Ruth Bader Ginsburg succumbed to cancer, #RestInPower immediately trended. The ACLU, New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand, actress Reese Witherspoon and the ostensibly Jewish uber-left activists of Bend the Arc all used the woke neologism in their tributes.The play on words likely originated in the 1990s rap. It entered mainstream usage after the 2016 election when the left lost its mind. Even in a culture that’s increasingly — pathetically — obsessed with politics, politicizing death feels like a new low. Ginsburg’s final rite of passage signals a rejection of Jewish and Christian customs along with democratic norms, and a return to paganism and violence.

pagan

Friday

Amber Duke

Who deserves a funeral?

No one would argue that Rep. John Lewis doesn't deserve a proper memorial. He was a civil rights icon and a long-serving member of Congress who was beloved by his colleagues. In the middle of a pandemic, however, how do we decide who gets the pomp and circumstance of a traditional burial and who has to watch their loved one go six feet under via Zoom call? Funerals are important: they acknowledge the sanctity of life and allow friends and family to come together to grieve their loss. This reality doesn't change based on how famous or revered an individual was to the general public: it doesn't hurt any less to say goodbye to someone who was just a dad or just someone's child or just a dear friend. Their lives aren't any less significant.

funerals