A review by wavysagey
From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty

5.0

This book is so so so good. Reading about different cultures’ death rituals helped me to confront my own fear of death and Why it has scared me so much my whole life, as well as why my grief over my grandfather still feels insurmountable, a year and a half later. America’s culture of death is out of sight, out of mind — we are separated from our dead, not allowed the time to confront or process our loved one’s mortality, and our own. People have told me many times that death is a beautiful thing, a natural progression of life, but it’s hard to feel that way when you are not allowed to process death and grief in the way you NEED to, and instead you have to process it in an American funeral home approved way. My grandpa was alive, and then I received a call, and then I received his ashes. I was not allowed to see him one last time, nor witness his cremation. I can’t help but think how much further along I’d be in “healing” if I had been allowed to be in any way a part of his death care. Caitlin is doing such good work on this earth <3