LET’S TALK
ABOUT DEATH
‘THE
‘DEATH
OVER
DINNER’
READING
LIST
1. ‘HOW TO LIVE
BEFORE YOU DIE,’
BY STEVE JOBS
Drawing from some of the most pivotal
points in his life, the chief executive
officer and co-founder of Apple and
of Pixar Animation Studios, urged
Stanford graduates to pursue their
dreams and see the opportunities
in life’s setbacks — including death
itself — at the university’s 114th
Commencement on June 12, 2005.
2. JANE LOTTER’S
SELF-PENNED OBITUARY
Before dying peacefully at home
through Washington’s “Death With
Dignity Act,” due to her advanced
cancer, Jane Lotter wrote her own
obituary. Read it here.
3. ‘A DECALOGUE:
TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR THE
CONCERNED CAREGIVER,’ BY
RABBI EARL A. GROLLMAN
“Grieving is hard work — work that
tears at you in so many ways. Grief
taxes every part of you — body, soul
and spirit. And when loss comes after
a prolonged illness you may feel that
you have twice as much work. And
in many ways, you do — for you are
grieving both during and after the
illness.”
HUFFINGTON
09.29.13
ing culture through the table.”
“People talk about death in the
doctor’s office, awkward family
gatherings, lawyers’ offices, all of
these awful places that are not designed for a conversation that requires a great deal of humanity and
often humor, reverence,” said Hebb,
37. “But, historically, it’s over food
where ideas have come alive.”
At the University of Washington, his class designed a “table of
truth” — a simple wooden table
where it met for its weekly three-
The idea: for students, Hebb
and Macklin to create a project
bringing views on death to life
through food and drink.
hour courses — to dine over death.
Doctors, palliative caretakers, coffin makers, funeral directors and
health-care executives visited the
students, sharing their own views
on the end of life and how it plays
out in the United States.
Hebb, whose own interest was
spurred by a chance conversation
with a pair of doctors while on a
Portland-to-Seattle train a few
years ago, shared some of the facts
that conversation brought to light:
70 percent of Americans want to
die at home, but only 20 to 30 percent do; medical bills, including
those related to the end of life, are