
When Riddle and Ronstadt Made Beautiful Music Together
“Who is Linda Ronstadt?” That was the question Grammy/Oscar/Emmy winning arranger Nelson Riddle asked when he hung up the phone after a conversation with Peter Asher, Ronstadt’s manager. It was May of 1982 and Riddle was no longer at the top of his game: his best years, those times when he and Frank Sinatra were recording […]
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Helping Children Understand COVID and Death
Posted by Martin Oaks under Community, Cremation, Hello world, Resources
2020 was truly the year of living dangerously. In the United States, when the final numbers are in, more than 3,000,000 will have died. Although Covid-19 claimed more than 300,000 of those lives in this country, it was not the only culprit. Deaths were up in many categories, including coronary heart disease, diabetes, and high […]
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Rituals Impact Grief Recovery after the Loss of a Loved One
“Dying, a man may be loved, hated, mourned, missed; but once dead, he becomes the chief ornament of a complicated and formal social celebration.” These words from author John Steinbeck are cynical, but revelatory: across cultures, in many different ways, we embrace rituals at the time of death. And, we bestow them freely upon the deceased, whatever […]
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The Traveling Cremains of Dorothy Parker
Posted by Martin Oaks under Community, Cremation, Hello world, Memorial, Resources
Fifty-three years after her death, Dorothy Parker’s cremains have just been buried in their forever home at Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York. This protracted ordeal began on June 7, 1967 when Parker died from a heart attack in her Manhattan hotel suite. The wry author and wisecracking mainstay of the famed Algonquin Round Table […]
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Surviving A Dreadful Diagnosis
Posted by Martin Oaks under Community, Cremation, Hello world, Memorial, Resources
Every year in America, 1.7 million people are diagnosed with cancer. Another 1.5 million learn they have diabetes. And 720,000 others suffer their first heart attack. As one professional athlete said, “When I left home to go to the doctor’s office I was one person. After learning I had cancer, I came home a different person. Nothing […]
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