Mortuary Mall
- Welcome, door prizes, caskets, urns and other products on display in the Celebration of Life parking lot.
10 am - 11:30
“The Newly Dead Game”/Death Café
- Conducted by The Doyenne of Death®, Gail Rubin, the audience plays along, answering questions about wills, final disposition preferences, advance medical directives, and thoughts on a final resting place. Expect surprises. Following is our Death Cafe, where death, cookies, tea and coffee make for interesting and even entertaining conversation.
11:45 am - 12:15 pm (Also repeated at 1:30 and at 3 pm.)
Crematory Retort Tour
- A talk by a cremation expert explaining the cremation process up close and personal. Questions about scattering, environmental impact, creative things people do with cremated remains, and other issues will be answered.
12:30 pm - 1 (Also repeated at 2:15 and at 3:45 pm.)
Mortuary Tour
- What’s behind those closed doors? We’ll open them up and show you, and answer ALL your questions, from embalming to casketing, and more. Nothing is off limits.
Panel Sessions 1 pm - 1:45 (Also repeated at 3 pm - 3:45)
What You Should Know about Hospice Care
- Hospice experts talk about this significant and humane end-of-life choice, including medical aid in dying.
Laughing in the Face of Death - Funny Films for Funeral Planning - Gail Rubin’s keynote speech incorporates comedy film clips to illustrate
the importance and benefits of preneed funeral planning.
Obituary Writing & Being Remembered
- Workshop and discussion on how you want to be remembered and various ways to preserve your life story for future generations, from text to online. A life story writing guide will be provided.
Panel Sessions 2 pm - 2:45 (Also repeated at 4 pm - 4:45)
Estate Planning / End of Life Issues
- Work with local financial planners and attorneys to answer questions about wills, trusts, probate, estates and everything else that gets left behind.
The “Woo-woo” Side of Death
- Paranormal experts, ghost hunters and psychics talk about what’s on the “other side,” communicating with the dead, Near Death Experiences (NDEs) and haunted Bakersfield. Are you a believer, a skeptic or just curious?
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Death, but were afraid to ask
- We’ve assembled a fantastic panel that includes a funeral director, a hospice caregiver, and clergy to field any and all questions from the audience. Greenlawn’s own Jim LaMar is moderator.
5 pm - 7
Movie: “Undertaking Betty”
- Undertaking Betty (2002 PG-13) is a romantic comedy with a behind-the-scenes look at two funeral homes in the small village of Wrottin-Powys in Wales. This funeral film offers a fun way to start funeral planning conversations by showing both traditional and highly outrageous personalized send-offs. Popcorn? Oh, of course!