Mourning Heals: Family, Rituals, and Grief

In this episode, we explore how death shapes family dynamics across generations and cultures. Funeral director Linda Lee reflects on 30 years of guiding families through the practical and emotional realities of funerals, from disputes over eulogies and heirlooms to questions of inheritance and who’s included—or left out—of the will.

Author Katherine Ashenburg shares her own experiences of mourning and insights from her book The Mourner’s Dance:What We Do When People Die, tracing the history of rituals like wearing black and covering mirrors, and showing how cultural traditions have long helped families carry grief together.

Katherine Ashenburg’s book is both a personal reflection about her daughter’s creation of rituals around her fiancé’s death, and a broader consideration of both the history and the current state of death-related practices around the world. In the conversation with Katherine Ashenburg in this episode many of the examples discussed pertain to British or Western European traditions, but of course they represent only a tiny sliver of the world’s experience.

Links & Resources

• Visit the Mount Pleasant Group website for more information and resources.
• The Mourner’s Dance: What We Do When People Die by Katherine Ashenburg
• Grieving Beyond Gender: Understanding Diverse Grieving Styles by Kenneth Doka and Terry Martin
• See the MPG Pre-Planning Guide to learn more about your options and steps to take.
• Learn more about Linda Lee’s historical journey in death care
• The BAO's Memorial Planning Guide is a useful tool to collect information to plan services.

Please note that the opinions expressed by the hosts and guests are their own and do not necessarily represent the views or beliefs of Mount Pleasant Group.

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