"Your Life, Your Funeral"

This article about my book was published in the Chicago Tribune (and suburban editions) yesterday.

By William Hageman, Tribune Newspapers

January 9, 2012

Erika Dillman comes by her interest in death naturally.

"My grandparents were in the business," she says. "They sold embalming fluid."

When she was 8, her grandparents took her to a funeral convention — what kid wouldn't be thrilled? — where she picked out a particular casket in which she wanted to be buried. 

"I knew your funeral was something you had to plan for, to buy things for," she says. "Now, it's the party aspect I'm obsessed with." 

Dillman has written "The Party of Your Life: Get the Funeral You Want by Planning It Yourself" (Santa Monica Press). In it, she not only makes a good case for a memorable, personalized funeral, but also explains how to pull it off and why it's becoming more common. 

"People want more control. They want a more personal occasion. Those are the two main things," she says. "They want to personalize it and have something meaningful for them. ... They want something more than a church service and burial." 

She says she hopes the main thing that people take away from the book is the notion that it's OK to do what they want, not what survivors might think they would have wanted.  Continue reading article.

Thanks for visiting. Click to visit The Party of Your Life website.