From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death

by Caitlin Doughty

The Western funeral home loves the word “dignity.” The largest American funeral corporation has even trademarked the word. What dignity translates to, more often than not, is silence, a forced poise, a rigid formality. Wakes last exactly two hours. Processions lead to the cemetery. The family leaves the cemetery before the casket is even lowered into the ground.

When the feelings come, the fear of death, I must feel those feelings. I must pay my bill. It is being alive.”