Death is one of the facts of life people are uncomfortable talking about. But there is a growing movement taking hold in the United States – and around the world – encouraging conversation about this once taboo topic often referred to as “the elephant in the room.”

“It makes sense that the concept is taking off in America,” blogged Sally Abrahms for AARP. “These independent-minded, I’m-not-going-to-take-it-lying-down boomers are exploring the last frontier. They’re…

Between my mother’s slow death, at 45, in 1968 and my dad’s sudden passing in 1996, much had changed about how we process those losses and the grief that follows. What hadn’t changed so much was the way deaths were announced in obituaries: death notices were still, for the most part, fairly straightforward without much flourish or fanfare. Not many of the special traits and eccentricities that make us all unique were included in those days.

But with The New York…