Episode Summary:
This week on BEATS WORKING, hosts Alysse Bryson and Libby Sundgren gather at “The Fun Table” with guests Amy Liz Harrison, Kristin Graham, and Dele Downs Kooley to flip the traditional funeral on its head. They dive into the growing movement of personalized Celebrations of Life, the value of legacy-making, and ideas for making your sendoff as unforgettable as your life. From dance parties to death letters and personalized memorabilia, this episode will spark new perspectives on grief, memory, and joyful goodbyes.
Timestamps:
[00:00] – Cremation wishes & afterlife humor
[00:30] – Why somber funerals are giving way to celebrations of life
[03:24] – Unique memorials: Candy bars, memorabilia, and parties before you’re gone
[05:11] – Death letters and the emotional impact of sharing while alive
[07:44] – Honoring even the “prickly” people: Memories and kindness
[08:54] – Cultural perspectives: Jamaican “Ninth Night” and New Orleans jazz funerals
[12:20] – Planning your own celebration: What do you want, and who have you told?
[14:00] – The power of gathering: Why funeral parties heal
[16:55] – “Death Over Dinner” events & why your friends should be younger
[20:59] – The importance of personal touches in memorials
[21:52] – AI, technology, and keeping the voices of loved ones alive
[25:46] – Planning surprises at your own funeral
[28:37] – The business of celebration: Future trends in memorial events
[31:22] – Legacy podcasts, quilts, and preserving your impact
[31:56] – Celebrating life… while we’re still here
Resources & Links:
-Andrea Driessen’s TEDxSeattleWomen talk: Eulogies for the Living
-Meet The Fun Table: Kristin Graham, Dele Downs Kooley, Amy Liz Harrison
-Alysse & Libby: Bios & LinkedIn
Connect with Us:
-Website: www.beatsworkingpodcast.com
-LinkedIn: @BEATS WORKING Show
-Instagram: @beatsworkingshow
-Facebook: @Beats Working Show
-YouTube: @BEATSWORKINGPODCAST
Follow & Subscribe:
If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your feedback helps us improve and reach more listeners.
Send Feedback:
If you have a show idea, feedback, or just want to connect, email us at info@beatsworking.show.
BEATS WORKING is a platform on a mission to redeem work—the word, the place, and the way. We believe that work is the most honorable act in the universe, and through inspiring stories and practical insights, we want to transform the way people think about work and help them discover greater fulfillment in their lives. We invite you to join us as we build community through sharing and actively demonstrating what we learn.
Share Article on Social Media
Transcript
The following transcript is not certified. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. The information contained within this document is for general information purposes only.
[00:00:00] Libby Sundgren: Welcome to BEATS WORKING, winning the Game of Events. Today we’re flipping the script on the traditional view of funerals. I know this sounds crazy. I personally love them. In this Fun Table episode, we’re diving deep into the rising trend of celebrations of life. Let’s be clear, this has been rising for a long time.
[00:00:20] Wakes, celebrations of life, but we’re gonna get into it. You know, somber suits and quiet whispers are being swapped for storytelling, laughter, and even a little bit of dancing. I have my own story about that today. I’ve got my co-host Alysse and our very special fun table guests, Amy Liz Harrison, Dele Downs Kooley and Kristen Graham, we’re unpacking the power of saying goodbye in a way that truly honors a person’s life and maybe even throwing in a few surprises for your for COL event. From theme memorials to legacy playlists, we are talking all about [00:01:00] turning grief into gratitude and maybe even into a party.
[00:01:04] Welcome.
[00:01:05] Kristin Graham: Hey,
[00:01:06] Dele Downs Kooley: Hello.
[00:01:08] Alysse Bryson: Well, I can start off because, you know, Libby is in charge of my celebration of life. So you guys, that
[00:01:16] the is a party you’re not gonna wanna miss because we’ve been talking about it for a long time now. Long time and hopefully it’s, it’s not gonna be for a while to be clear, but,
[00:01:27] Libby Sundgren: I’ll
[00:01:28] probably be like 90 when this happens. So you know,
[00:01:33] I’m
[00:01:33] Alysse Bryson: So I’m dying at a hundred.
[00:01:35] Libby Sundgren: be up. So don’t, I don’t know if you should trust my judgment at 90, but you know.
[00:01:39] Dele Downs Kooley: down, it’ll be
[00:01:40] fine.
[00:01:41] Alysse Bryson: No, but you know, I, what I think is. Awesome about celebrations of life is the people that come together to honor the person that has passed and, and it isn’t the stereotypical, maybe like four weddings and a funeral that we remember from the eighties and the nineties. [00:02:00] It’s, you know, there’s storytelling, there’s so many pictures and videos, like I’ve seen people set up, you know, hold tables of memorabilia.
[00:02:10] , I was at one where there was a candy bar and I immediately called Libby on my way home. I was like, add candy bar to the list.
[00:02:16] I’m gonna need a candy in the note on my phone that’s on a boat, but it’ll be back soon.
[00:02:22] Kristin Graham: Yep.
[00:02:23] Alysse Bryson: Yes. Yes. So I think celebrations of life are really interesting. I, I do kind of wish that maybe we would have them before the person exited the earth.
[00:02:34] Kristin Graham: Well, let’s talk about that.
[00:02:37] Let’s talk about that, Alysse i, ’cause I think that there is a movement for that of people participating. And I know we were joking about, here’s the things I’d like, but I’ve seen several stories around people who participated if, if they knew that they were within, A decline or that they would be passing, that they were present for that. And I also have a, a wonderful friend called Andrea Dreesen who [00:03:00] has an incredible TEDx talk all about grace Notes for the living and about sharing your words and your stories and your memorabilia and candy bars, uh, while you have the chance so that when you’re sitting there on the other side and they say, funerals are for the living, right. Nothing was left unsaid or uneaten so I do think that there’s a movement.
[00:03:20] Alysse Bryson: So recently I helped produce a concert, a musical concert in Seattle that had a lot of Seattle musical icons and legends performing, and, uh, it was at the Moore Theater. It was called Dreaming and Analog, and people got together.
[00:03:35] The premise of this concert was to honor Charles R. Cross, who was very well known in the Seattle music journalism. Communities. He had many, many, , top selling books. , and what I loved about this particular event was, , there in between songs they would get up and they would, , because he was a journalist for so many years,
[00:03:58] they would read pieces of his [00:04:00] work in between songs, but one piece of his work that they read was, , his death letter. So it was his letter to his loved ones for after he was gone. And he had written it quite a while ago actually. And as that was being read, I sat there, I got a little teary-eyed, and I was like, I need to write my own death letter.
[00:04:18] And it doesn’t mean that it has to be the final version. Maybe five years from now or 10 years from now, I’m gonna wanna update it. Right. But just sitting there and listening to his thoughtfulness, yes, of course he acknowledged his son and some other close family members, but it was. It was so powerful because it really made me feel like he was there with us.
[00:04:40] I’ve also been at celebrations of Life where they’ve brought up a video of the person where they’ve been interviewed, you know, and that can be very powerful as well. And I think that what we’re going to see is, you know. Grief and mourning. People that have lost, it’s different now with social media because there’s, [00:05:00] depending on the person, there’s a lot, there could be a lot of content there.
[00:05:03] I mean, I’ve, there’s enough content people, I’ll keep people entertained for decades. Right? Decades. But like it’s interesting to see, and you know, even on Facebook, you can leave. Somebody in charge of your account when you’re gone. I definitely want the person that I’ve left in charge to, to keep posting on my behalf.
[00:05:22] Just, just for
[00:05:23] Dele Downs Kooley: To freak people out.
[00:05:25] Alysse Bryson: just for shits and
[00:05:26] Libby Sundgren: I think that we should just schedule ’em on like, you know, later or metric full.
[00:05:29] We’ll just schedule ’em on your account so that
[00:05:31] you know, every year it’ll be just like, Hey, remember this? And people are like, what? What?
[00:05:36] Amy Liz Harrison: I love everything about this topic so far, and I have written letters to all my kids and to my husband, but I love the idea of a general letter as well to the people attending or like what you feel like you most would love to be remembered for. But here’s my favorite thing about funerals.
[00:05:57] I know it sounds a little bit. Dark, [00:06:00] but I love that people get together. For example, someone who shall remain nameless, , may or may not be a family member, , had a funeral when they passed, or we had one for this person and we all went and we’re like, gosh, you know, is anyone gonna show up? Because this person was a little prickly.
[00:06:21] Okay? And not only did, yes, people showed up for this person, but they remembered anything that they could turn into a positive compliment where it could have gone south. They really, everybody just kind of. You know, remembered that one time where they ran into that person and they made them feel a certain way or, this one, you know, interaction brought out a new idea that led them down a different path.
[00:06:55] And I love that even at funerals, people can reframe [00:07:00] situations and relationships and tend to be more forgiving and let things go. At least that’s been my experience so far.
[00:07:07] Dele Downs Kooley: I love that you say that because I do think, uh, there are people in our lives that there are plenty of. Less than positive experiences that we could talk about. It’s when they pass that you are more focused on the, what were their contributions, what did they leave behind the, the celebration of life. And as we’re talking about this, and so far what we’ve gotten to is what I think of as the very American version of, when we were talking about this episode, I immediately thought of. Very boring. Take ’em to the, to the graveside service. The, the Ecclesiastes is it ecclesias the, to every season turn, turn, like, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that Psalm read at a funeral
[00:07:57] and
[00:07:58] Kristin Graham: Hmm.
[00:07:59] Dele Downs Kooley: to [00:08:00] growing up those were, as a kid like. There wasn’t a lot to that. There wasn’t anything exciting.
[00:08:05] Maybe after everybody came around, they were sad. They ate some cake. Uh, maybe they talked about their memories. And then I was introduced to my Jamaican roots where the celebration of life is very different. My grandmother, who was an oral historian and featured on the cover of a book, when she passed away. They have what they call a ninth night in, in Jamaican culture where the body is buried after the ninth night of their passing. they believe that the soul departs from the body on the ninth night, and so everyone started coming. To where this, the funeral was gonna be. So for us, we were in the us we went to Jamaica. There were people who walked as news spread from the outer parts of the island. They walked, they made their way. [00:09:00] And on the ninth night, this was very foreign to me because I had not been, uh, a part of my Jamaican culture. I only heard about it from my relatives. So this was the first experience for me where. On the day of, my sister had been cooking all day. That’s something I love about celebrations of life is the the food component. But she’d been cooking all day. They dropped my grandmother’s body off and it set in the yard where the service was going to happen and then people just started showing up and. We had people from all over the island, people that had traveled, dignitaries, came to this funeral. My father was a reggae musician. And so what I remember was the music, the drums, the people sitting up with the body and singing and, and sending her off [00:10:00] Pass on to the next side and, and then the very New Orleans style.
[00:10:04] The next day we had the service at the church and, , put her in the, in a big tomb on the side of a mountain. I. But that very New Orleans style, the music, the singing. So there are so many different ways that we can celebrate life. And when we first started talking about this topic, I thought of the very sad sitting in the church go to the grave versus the real celebrations of life like. When I hear when the Saints go marching in, I just get excited because it reminds me of my Aunt Lums funeral, and that was not sad. It was a hugely celebratory moment of the life that she had lived in, the legacy that she had passed on to the rest of us.
[00:10:53] Kristin Graham: I love the cultural elements of what you’re saying, right from uh.
[00:10:57] Geographic culture. Yeah.
[00:10:59] [00:11:00] Or religious, like , the Jewish tradition of sitting Shiva. But one of the things in, in the last year, I’ve, , lost two friends suddenly, and I’m curious about whether you all have first thought about what, what. The time after you pass might look like. And if so, have you shared that with anyone? Because having, , lost family members there becomes this vernacular Well, they would’ve wanted, and I’m just curious if, , you all actually have given thought to what you might want, whether it’s against your religion or your culture or individualized or exactly that. And then has that been shared in any way?
[00:11:40] Libby Sundgren: Well, I mean, I have Alysse’s list
[00:11:42] Kristin Graham: Obviously we know. Yes,
[00:11:43] yes.
[00:11:45] Libby Sundgren: I, my husband and I, every so often will say, have we talked about what we should do if one of us dies? We’re like, yeah, you know, just cremate me, like, throw me somewhere, wherever you guys want, [00:12:00] you know? And, just make sure like. If I, I’m always like, if I die really soon, just make sure that you know, it’s okay if you wanna get married again.
[00:12:10] If you wanna date and get married, I want you to. He’s like, okay, thanks.
[00:12:15] He’s like, we don’t really need to talk off. You’re not gonna die.
[00:12:18] Dele Downs Kooley: If I wanna dance off, and if I can’t have it, then I don’t want it.
[00:12:21] Libby Sundgren: yeah,
[00:12:22] Dele Downs Kooley: I want music and I want all of you to twerk on your way out
[00:12:26] Kristin Graham: Wow. Okay.
[00:12:28] Libby Sundgren: I think that, , so, you know, my dad had a couple of heart attacks when I was growing up, and so, I always had this, I think all of us in my family had this kind of feeling like he could have another heart attack at any time.
[00:12:45] You know, he could die at any time. And so I don’t, I guess I can’t really speak for my brother. My sister, I mean, or my mom. But I, I think because of that, I like, I called my parents all the time, like in college, called him every [00:13:00] day. I think I called my dad one time at like midnight to ask him the square footage of our house. You know, I was clearly under the influence and a freshman, and my dad was like, don’t do that again. Like, that was funny now, but like, don’t, you don’t need to call me the middle of night. Don’t, don’t worry about that. and so when he, so he did die when I was young, not from a heart attack, but he died from cancer and he was. Diagnosed in July and died in November. So it was four months. It was very quick and it was right after I graduated college. And I think because I had always lived with this fear that he was going to die early, I was very like made sure, I always said, I love you. Like I always, I just had a very close relationship with them and I. I mean, I guess I’d have to ask my family if I do that now, but I think I’m similar with. My kids and with tj. So [00:14:00] I dunno that they have directives specifically about what I want to, how I want my celebration of life to be. , but I do talk, , I routinely talk about my dad’s. Celebration of life. I call it his funeral party. , because, and I think that event is what really made me, it really shifted my thinking of funerals from like an awkward, like uncomfortable, quiet event to something like, to this mindset that it feels so good to have people in the same room who loved somebody that you loved. Even a small amount, you know, even if it’s not quite the same, but they did love your person, dad, partner, whoever, in the same way.
[00:14:47] It just feels so good to see that and to feel that in a room and,
[00:14:53] I just tell ’em, I want them to have like a really fun party and just for it to be [00:15:00] good because
[00:15:01] I, you know, it’s lonely to, to lose somebody and. Just knowing, you know, even if it’s cart, you know, if you can’t go attend a celebration of life, like sending a message, sending a cart, sending a Instagram, you know, DM or something, it doesn’t need to be a big display of support.
[00:15:21] But, , all of those kinds of things I think add up and really make the person and the people who are losing somebody feel less alone in their. Grief and, you know, how they’re navigating, navigating that loss. So
[00:15:38] just have a fun party guys.
[00:15:40] Kristin Graham: beautifully said.
[00:15:41] Libby Sundgren: And now it’s on the record. So just save this episode, play it for tj if something should happen to me. Just have a good party.
[00:15:49] Alysse Bryson: You know, uh, years ago I went to a dinner where we talked about death. It was called Death Over Dinner, not the event that we produced a year ago with Sidekick Suppers, but this was the [00:16:00] original one that I went to, and we had to go around this table, which was mostly strangers. I think I knew two people there and talk about, you know, how we wanted to go.
[00:16:08] And this one lady, Lillian, if you’re listening. , She wanted to be cremated and she wanted her ashes to be launched out of a pa potato gun in this very specific beach on the Oregon coast. And I remember thinking, I’ve got to get my act together. Like the i that is a cool, like that is a cool, that’s a cool way to go.
[00:16:32] Right? And I thought that was like. Just super interesting. And then when we had our death over dinner event with Psychic Suppers last year, my friend Rebecca was there and she said, Alysse, the most important thing you can do to prepare for your F funeral is to have a. Just, all of your friends need to be younger than you.
[00:16:52] Just all of them, just as many people younger than you, because that will assure that the, that your celebration of [00:17:00] life is very full and very crowded.
[00:17:02] And you know, I have to tell you, on more than one occasion, I’ve often wondered, I wonder who will be there. I wonder how many people will be there. Will it be standing will room only?
[00:17:11] Will they need to do a live stream? Will it be just Libby? You know, these are things that I think people that you think of, right? You totally think of. And the other thing I wanted, I don’t have a lot of experience with death, , yet. I know I will by the end of my journey, but I do remember my grandma Bryson, when she passed, I was in my twenties.
[00:17:32] , and you know, my grandma lived a very simple life. She was a single mom when my dad was five, my grandpa Bryson passed. And so she lived a very simple life. She, she lived in a single wide trailer, in a trailer park in a very small town, and she was, little bit of a hoarder of knickknacks, which is where I get it.
[00:17:55] But she really didn’t have very many, uh, luxury things or, you [00:18:00] know, , she had a lot of thrifty things, but maybe not any luxury things. And I do remember being at her funeral and she had a, the, the, a baby pink Cadillac. Caskets. It was the most beautiful baby pink. It was like almost like that bowling ball sparkle to it.
[00:18:20] You know when a
[00:18:21] Libby Sundgren: cat, not a real Cadillac, but just,
[00:18:24] Alysse Bryson: no, it wasn’t a real Cadillac. It was like, it was like the Cadillac of caskets is what I’m saying. It was baby pink and it was glittery and it was silver, and it was ornate. And I just remember thinking, why didn’t she ever have anything that nice when she was alive? Like, it just was so, it was so confusing to me that that is where she put her money.
[00:18:48] , and I was just like, no, no, that’s not how I’m going to do it. And I do remember a couple years ago, Libby, when we went to Heidi s funeral, who was a gal that we worked with at King Five that died [00:19:00] very unexpectedly. Very much shook me to my core. It still does when I think about it. You know what, she was known for many things, , including sometimes being difficult, but one of the things she was known for is her, was her shoe collection.
[00:19:13] She, she had a very wild shoe collection, and one thing I thought was really cool at her service is they, they brought several pairs of her shoes and they hung them inside of these empty frames along this wall so we could all admire like. The, the, you know, the six pairs of her craziest shoes or whatever, and I was just like, yeah, now this is more like it.
[00:19:37] Right? That is, I want something more like that and less Cadillac of caskets. I do wanna be cremated. Is that on the list? Libby? I just, I do wanna be cremated. I don’t know about the pa potato gun launching thing. We’ll have to, we’ll have to, we
[00:19:51] can talk about that later. Yeah, we can talk about that later.
[00:19:53] Kristin Graham: I wanna go back to what Libby said about the loneliness. Like the grief is something that all of us [00:20:00] share in some form or another over the course of our journeys, but it is, , a very lonely time. And so I love how Libby talked about sharing the words or the outreach and so many people get. Fixated and I don’t know what to say and this is awkward and, and being on the other side of it, just receiving anything, even an emoji still says, I, I see you. But I recently read an article and I’m very curious in your thoughts on this, of how people are turning more and more to ai. As their verbal companions or work partners, et cetera. And there is, and this shouldn’t be a surprise at all, but there’s a line of business where they’re looking to recreate your loved ones.
[00:20:37] So you can upload emails, voice memos, videos, and that becomes, ,
[00:20:43] Libby Sundgren: Oh.
[00:20:44] Kristin Graham: a forum for you. And I To like talk to and it responds to you. Yeah.
[00:20:49] Yeah, it may in their vernacular or their expressions or, and it’s, it’s interesting.
[00:20:56] Libby Sundgren: You know, I do have a thought about that [00:21:00] because. okay. Sorry. Back to me. After my dad died, they did this very, he worked at a hospital in Pendleton. There’s one hospital in this town and they did a very small, before his funeral party, they did a very small, like memorial service in the chapel. At the hospital is Catholic Hospital Franciscan. Anyway. It, , was just a couple of his, like closest work people. There were maybe only like 25 of us, maybe maybe 30 or 40. I dunno. It was very small, but they played, , a video of it was on a DVD, but my dad would do, he would. Was in charge of a lot of things, but one of them was nurses, nurse education. So he would, they had all these videos of him doing, he like goofy or weird skits, like at these education days or like teaching. And there was, you know, it was, it was set to the song Mild Friend by Tim McGraw, if you haven’t heard it, it’s a [00:22:00] real tear jerker of a song. So we’re sitting there like, kind of like. You know, crying silently. And then the music kind of went down and this part of the video came on where, and he was talking and I heard his voice and I just. Sobbed so loud because I didn’t think I was ever going to hear his voice again. And I had never thought about that. You know, like in your mind you’re like, oh, I, I’ll remember it, but you’re kind of lose a little bit of that every day, every year, and I was just so grateful to have that on. I still have the DVD in my, in the little box.
[00:22:43] I don’t have a DVD player, but if I need to listen to, I’ll get one. That was so, I mean, it was just like such a gift to have that, and so I actually do think voice memos. I don’t know that I would want my dad an AI dean [00:23:00] talking to me, but hearing the voice of the person that you love, who you will not be able to talk to again, just the sound of their voice.
[00:23:09] I think there’s something very cool about that.
[00:23:12] Dele Downs Kooley: I save every voicemail that my people leave me. I know that we don’t do that often, but on my phone, I save every voicemail. My mom leaves me. She drives me nuts. She absolutely makes me insane. However. She is my mother and I am very keenly aware of the fact that there will be a time when she is no longer walking around on this planet.
[00:23:40] So I don’t take that for granted and I save every crazy voicemail. She leaves me because like you said, I won’t, I think I’m gonna remember, but I won’t. Like there’s this cadence to her voice that is my grandfather. And when I listen to her [00:24:00] voicemails, I hear the, the cadence of my grandfather when he talked it. It’s something that all of his children have. And I love the idea of, I mean, that’s the thing about AI or technology in general is there’s a, a, it’s a double-sided sword. On the one side, you, you get to go back and listen to the voice of your loved ones. and I don’t just save my mom’s voicemail. If you’ve ever left me a voicemail, I have one girlfriend that every time she calls me, she leaves a message. I. Don’t always listen to them, but the fact that I know I can is a gift. So my phone and all the messages that are on it are the gift that I’m giving to my future self. The flip side of that, which goes with the loneliness epidemic is , there are times when we lean too heavily into AI as a companion.
[00:24:57] So, I think it’s any, [00:25:00] like anything else, be a fan, not a fanatic of the technology that’s being put out there. And there’s always gonna be, a good a, a light side and a dark side.
[00:25:11] Libby Sundgren: Mm-hmm. What about you, Amy?
[00:25:13] Amy Liz Harrison: So, okay, I, this is a lovely heartfelt tone that I don’t wanna wreck, but I do have a question for you guys. It’s a little crazy. Has anyone planned a surprise for their funeral? What I mean by that is like, at a really heartfelt moment, you know, Rick rolling the entire audience, for example, anybody have a surprise planned?
[00:25:37] Kristin Graham: Well, I,
[00:25:38] Alysse Bryson: I, I do. I do, but I, I, I, it started off as a joke. You have this, you have this, I think Libby on, on the list. It, it started off as a joke, but now I actually just think it should happen, because of the number of events that Libby and I have produced. And, uh, you know, 98% of them had photo booths. I once joked that I wanted [00:26:00] to have a photo booth at my celebration of life, but when you get out of the photo booth and they hand you the printed picture, surprise, I’ve been photoshopped in with you.
[00:26:09] Libby Sundgren: is like photoshopped in there. Yeah,
[00:26:11] Amy Liz Harrison: I love that.
[00:26:12] Alysse Bryson: It’s our last selfie together. Yeah. No,
[00:26:16] Amy Liz Harrison: of like the haunted mansion at Disneyland when you go home
[00:26:20] Alysse Bryson: yeah, it’s very haunted mansion. Yeah, it’s
[00:26:22] Amy Liz Harrison: it. I love it.
[00:26:23] Libby Sundgren: That’s pretty good.
[00:26:25] Dele Downs Kooley: I wanna choose the photo. That photo bombs though, like the control freak in me is like it has to be a good selfie. If I’m gonna
[00:26:33] do yeah, yeah,
[00:26:35] Libby Sundgren: We can have some photo bomb options. Maybe you take your picture and then you go over to the, to the photographer’s computer and you get to pick which Alysse goes on your photo.
[00:26:44] Alysse Bryson: but you know, there are things that I’ve thought about like, I’ve thought about like what about mannequins with like outfits that like people remember like signature outfits that you wore that people are like, oh, I would love to see that jacket again or whatever. Like there are [00:27:00] so many things that you could do with the celebration of life event now that haven’t been done that I do think there is an opportunity there in a business vertical for an event company to really specialize.
[00:27:13] And Libby, we once joked make about making celebration. Of life in a box, like a kit that you could
[00:27:18] order off the internet at different, different, different levels of investment. Like, because here’s the thing, death is always gonna be in business. Like it’s always. You know, it’s always gonna be in business, and I do think that we’re going to see over the next decade, I think we’re going to see new and different things happening at celebration of life that we haven’t thought of before.
[00:27:42] One thing that I’ve thought about is my mom is a quilter and she has many, many, many beautiful quilts, and I would like to see whatever room we’re in, whatever the space looks like. I want all of her quilts there , to honor. You know, and just to make it feel like her. And I think she would like that. I [00:28:00] don’t know.
[00:28:00] I’ll have to ask her. You know, so there’s things like that that I think we’re gonna see different twists.
[00:28:05] Dele Downs Kooley: I love that you bring that up because there’s the, we’re talking about celebration of life and celebrating life before. Potentially before someone has passed? Well, that means that we had the chance to plan. So there are the things that I want to plan that are important to me. I think there are also the things that, what are, what is it that people loved about you?
[00:28:27] What was it? And that’s why perhaps the celebration of life happening before you’re gone, , is so important because then you get to hear about the impact or, or what it is that someone. Appreciated about you. What difference did you make in their life? , whether it’s the quilts, because I know with my grandparents there were things about being around them that I still have a library desk and quilts that remind me of my grandparents. , but what is it [00:29:00] besides the physical possessions that, that bring. Joy to the lives of others. And, , I don’t know how we capture that. That’s a business opportunity somewhere. Uh, I also, one of my newest favorite things is, uh, in the world of podcasting. I have a friend who has started doing legacy podcasts where if you know you’re gonna pass, she facilitates your being able to. Capture that legacy that you want to pass on. And, and for me that’s really attractive because like Amy, I have these life lessons that I want to share with my children that I’ve started capturing in my closet. I. In my bedroom, I have a book, 50 Things that I Never Told You, and I keep it there as a reminder of what is it that I wanna capture for my boy versus my girls?
[00:29:59] What are the [00:30:00] things that I wanna pass on? So I love the idea of a legacy podcast, and even just recently watched a movie where the mom sent her daughter on a. On a scavenger hunt of sorts
[00:30:13] and then would give her a DVD. Um, so obviously it’s dated, but she would get DVDs and then her brothers were asking, what is it, like, what do they look like?
[00:30:24] Because they wanted that same connection to their mom.
[00:30:29] So I, I think there are lots of future business opportunities out there for how do we celebrate and capture
[00:30:36] all of those beautiful things.
[00:30:38] Libby Sundgren: What do you think, Kristen?
[00:30:40] Kristin Graham: I love all these topics and we’re talking about celebrating the life that we have lived. One nudge for all of us as a, as a thought as we go away is , ’cause that’s about the experience the other people will have. How are, because there’s one thing that every single human has in common with another.
[00:30:54] It’s your birth and your death. We all have those and we’re talking about our celebration of our life, but how are we [00:31:00] celebrating while we’re alive, whether it’s our birthday or other things? How are we taking the time to celebrate our life while we’re in it? And you’ve given me so much to think about today, and I love the idea of celebrating while we’re all still here to be part of it.
[00:31:15] Alysse Bryson: I think that’s a really great point Kristen, and I think that brings us full circle back to why events and connection are so important. And it sounds like we will be having more conversations on this topic. And maybe you, our listeners, you have thoughts, please send us an email or slide into our dms.
[00:31:33] We would love to hear your thoughts on the subject. , you can email us at info at BEATS WORKING show. And remember every detail matters. Every moment counts and no matter what the show must go on.
