Confessions of a Funeral Director: How the Business of Death Saved My Life

Confessions of a Funeral Director: How the Business of Death Saved My Life

Working in the deathcare industry requires a level of compassion and understanding that isn’t for the faint hearted. Sixth-generation funeral director and award-winning author Caleb Wilde reflects, by combining humor and insight, on morality and the powerful lessons death holds in his memoir, Confessions of a Funeral Director . We are people who deeply fear death. While humans are biologically wired to evade death for as long as possible, we have become too adept at hiding from it, vilifying it—and when it can no longer be avoided—letting the professionals take over. Caleb understands this reticence and fear. He had planned to get as far away from the family business as possible. He wanted to make a difference in the world, and how could he do that if all the people he worked with here dead? Slowly, he discovered that caring for the deceased and their loved ones was making a difference—and at the same time saving his own. Confessions of a Funeral Director will: ·       Share how you can be a better human through grief ·       Show you how brokenness can be the start to a new beginning ·       Help you discover the ‘spirituality of death’ Told with equal parts humor and poignancy, Caleb offers an intimate look into the business and a new perspective on living and dying. Caleb reminds us, “Death isn’t just the dirty and the messy. We see death as a loss, and it is. But in death, we often find our most honest self, a stronger community, and some find that they are able to overcome the fear of death and live life to the fullest.” Caleb and his writing have been featured on national media outlets including ABC’s 20/20, NBC, HuffPost, The Atlantic, NPR, and TIME . “Caleb Wilde offers a reframing of death that is so badly needed in the world today— one that takes a narrative of loss, despair, and hopelessness, and helps us discover the hope we have been so desperately craving.” - Benjamin L. Corey, author of Unafraid “Caleb Wilde shows us how his faith was transformed and deepened as he allowed death to ‘quiet’ his faith rather than trying to manage death through his religious anxiety. I never thought of a funeral home as sacred space, but I do now. And I’m glad for it.” - Peter Enns, author of The Bible Tells Me So and The Sin of Certainty “Confessions of a Funeral Director is a hilarious, compelling, and moving memoir. With wondrous insight, lots of compassion, and at times, morbid detail, Caleb Wilde not only helps us rethink our fears and misgivings about death and dying, he empowers us to embrace the end of life fully alive, without trepidation, as a whole human soul. Confessions will make you laugh, cry, cringe, and it might just change everything you believe to be true about death.” - Matthew Paul Turner, author of Churched and When God Made You “Wilde not only helps us rethink our fears and misgivings about death and dying, he empowers us to embrace the end of life fully alive. Confessions of a Funeral Director will make you laugh, cry, cringe, and it might just change everything you believe to be true about death.” - Matthew Paul Turner, author of Churched and When God Made You “A fascinating look into the funeral industry and a compelling reflection on what it means to be a living, breathing human.” - Religion News Service “As a look behind the closed doors of the death industry, as well as a candid exploration of Wilde’s own faith journey, this book is fascinating and compelling.” - National Catholic Reporter “To a culture long estranged from its dead, Caleb Wilde provides good guidance towards some rapprochement.  By getting the dead where they need to go, a good funeral gets the living where they need to be.  Here is good orderly direction towards those ends.”  - Thomas Lynch, author of The Undertaking “With wit and warmth, Wilde breaks open the mysteries of funeral directing, allowing a glimpse into that unseen world of chemicals and coffins. Wilde teaches how to cherish the beauty in mourning and honor the deaths. His words guide us past the denials, and lead us to embrace life.” - Carol Howard Merritt, author of Healing Spiritual Wounds “In Confessions of a Funeral Director , Wilde… tells the stories of memorable funerals that helped him arrive at the ‘spirituality of death’ that he now embraces,… what it means to be ‘death positive’… and how he was able to start to find fulfillment as a funeral director.” - Vice “ Confessions of a Funeral Director is deep. It’s also thoughtful. And refreshing.” - Quad City Times With this stunner of a debut, Caleb Wilde sets himself apart as one of the most gifted storytellers of a generation. Wise, vulnerable, and surprisingly relatable, this book is funny in all the right places and enormously helpful throughout. It will change how you think about death. - Rachel Held Evans, author of Searching for Sunday With this stunner of a debut, Caleb Wilde sets himself apart as one of the most gifted storytellers of a generation. Wi