Accessibility links
In Home Funerals, Families Care For Their Dead When a loved one dies, most families look to professionals at funeral homes to help with the final arrangements. But until the last century, most funerals took place at home. In home funerals, family members prepare the body for viewing and burial.

National

In Home Funerals, Families Care For Their Dead

Heard on Talk of the Nation

In Home Funerals, Families Care For Their Dead

Listen · 30:08
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/103668142/103668141" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

When a loved one dies, most families look to professionals at funeral homes to help with the final arrangements.

But until the last century, most funerals took place at home. In home funerals, family members prepare the body for viewing and burial.

Guests:

Max Alexander, author and freelance journalist. His story, "The Surprising Satisfactions of a Home Funeral," appeared in the March issue of Smithsonian magazine

Lisa Carlson, executive director of the Funeral Ethics Organization, and author of Caring for the Dead

Glenn Taylor, president and owner of Glenn Funeral Home and Crematory in Owensboro, KY, and president of Selected Independent Funeral Homes