My Parents Are Dead: What Now?

An approachable, expert-fueled guide to dealing with the legal, financial, and logistical hurdles of a parent’s death-without losing your sense of humor.

A certified death doula provides an accessible and digestible guide to dealing with the legal, financial logistical hurdles of a parent’s death-without losing your sense of humor.

Whether you’ve recently lost a parent or you’re just trying to plan for the toughest day of your life so far, you’re probably experiencing a lot of dizzying emotions. Unfortunately, you’re also going to need to enter an overwhelming maze of paperwork and bureaucracy.

But you don’t have to do it alone.

After losing both parents, Becky Robison devoted herself to making death and postdeath logistics easier on others. She draws on her own experience, plus interviews with experts ranging from monument makers to morticians, to hold your hand through-

Asking your parents about their end-of-life wishes while you can
Getting a body buried, cremated, or donated to science
Planning a funeral
Securing a death certificate
Dealing with your parents’ property-or debt
Handling even more tricky issues you never wanted to be in charge of
And still being able to laugh, a little, sometimes

Nothing about this is easy. The good news is you have someone on your side.

Author Biography

Becky Robison is a writer and certified death doula living in Louisville, Kentucky. A graduate of UNLV’s creative writing MFA program, she has been published in Salon, Slate, Juked, and elsewhere. After her parents died, she created My Parents Are Dead- What Now?-a website documenting her journey through the legal, financial, and bureaucratic aftermath in order to help others do the same. She continues to educate others about death and dying through her writing and public speaking.