Thank you thank you thank you!! Yes.

I have had experience with being prepared, and helping people who weren't prepared, and I know which I prefer.

Thanks for the information, this is a great article, nice to see something like this in the Stranger! :)

Great article. There's also the Vashon Island Coffin Company (VICC), who provide inexpensive coffins by local artisans using sustainably harvested lumber. The owner is documented by a local filmmaker in this beautiful short http://vimeo.com/65019294

Great article. There's also the Vashon Island Coffin Company (VICC), who provide inexpensive coffins by local artisans using sustainably harvested lumber. The owner is documented by a local filmmaker in this beautiful short http://vimeo.com/65019294

Dad passed away this year and we had him cremated. Cheap and he's in a blue Lombardi Trophy shaped urn. We will now take a little of him with us when we travel. Hopefully the bit I left in Qualcomm stadium will put a curse on the chargers. Jeez it was hot down there.

Thanks for this great and important article. We are really lucky that we do have such a wealth of alternative death care resources here in Seattle as well as initiatives that are informing people to discuss their feelings and plans related to end-of-life so as to help them break through fear and live from a more empowered place.

Another such resource that started here in August 2013 is the social awareness project "Let's Have Death and Talk About Dinner" (www.deathoverdinner.org), created in partnership with the University of Washington, and designed by the Seattle firm Civilization. In reflection of its ability to catalyze tens of thousands worldwide to
begin talking about death, it was just mentioned in the Institute of Medicine's "Dying in America" report.

Another great local resource are the ongoing Death Cafes facilitated by Dr. Brad Lichtenstein and sponsored by the Center for Mind, Body, Spirit and Nature at Bastyr University.