Confessions of a Funeral Director

How Death Saved My Life

By: Caleb Wilde

Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin

A sixth-generation funeral director and writer of the popular ""must read"" (Time magazine) blog Confessions of a Funeral Director reflects on mortality and the powerful lessons death holds for every one of us in this compassionate and thoughtful spiritual memoir that combines the humor and insight of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes with the poignancy and brevity of When Breath Becomes Air.

Death. It happens to everyone, yet most of us don’t want to talk about this final chapter of existence. Sixth-generation funeral director Caleb Wilde intimately understands this reticence and fear. The son of an undertaker, he hesitated to embrace the legacy of running his family’s business. Yet he discovered that caring for the deceased and their loved ones profoundly changed his faith and his perspective on death—and life itself. ""Yes, death can be bad. Yes, death can be negative,"" he acknowledges, ""but it can also be beautiful. And that alternate narrative needs to be discussed.""

In Confessions of a Funeral Director, he talks about his experiences and pushes back against the death-negative ethos of our culture, opening a thoughtful, poignant conversation to help us see the end of life in a positive and liberating way. In the wry, compassionate, and honest voice that has charmed his growing legions of blog readers, Wilde offers an intimate look inside his business, offering information on unspoken practices around death such as the embalming process, beautiful and memorable stories about families in the wake of death, and, most importantly, a fresh and wise perspective on how embracing death can allow us to embrace life.

Confessions of a Funeral Director is the story of one man learning how death illuminates and deepens the meaning of existence—insights that can help us all pursue and cherish full, rich lives.

De-mystified the world of mortuary service.

I liked that the author revealed vulnerability and honesty in a challenging and mostly stressful profession. I was uncomfortable that, after revealing his seminary education, he embraced an evolutionary mindset. I would love to recommend some audible literature that would help him understand the biblical viewpoint better. As a healthcare professional (now retired) I have seen my share of death and dying. Also, I was the youngest born into a large family so I was exposed to family funerals early on. I’m glad I read (listened) to this book and would definitely recommend it.

Amazing!

What an amazing story! It touched my life and made me better at funeral service.

Intelligent journey from a death negative mindset to a death positive mindset. WOW.

The narrator is excellent. The author shares his journey by weaving in stories from when he was young, when he was in seminary, and when he became a funeral director. He shows in an empathetic manner how beneficial it is to move to a death positive mindset as opposed to staying in society’s overall death negative mindset. The story is heartwarming and compassionate.

Such an inspiring book

I absolutely LOVED this book. It was moving, full of emotion and inspiring for all those in this career or headed down that path. Highly recommend to anyone!

Future Funeral Director

Parts of it it sounded redundant. Otherwise informative. The author helped me to understand some of my own feelings about death.