A mortician's family file
When someone dies, the family makes dozens of decisions in a few days, tired and grieving, without knowing what to ask. This is the file I wish every family had brought to my arrangement table.
Faye Calloway
49 years in our family funeral home in East Tennessee
$27Launch price
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A word from Faye
My daddy started me out at nineteen, doing the ladies' hair and makeup for their viewings, and I never left. I spent forty-nine years in our family's funeral home, and for twenty-five of them I ran the crematory myself.
In all that time, the families who struggled most weren't the ones with the least money. They were the ones with no answers. Did Mama want to be buried or cremated? Where is the life insurance policy? Who do we call at the bank? Was there a song she loved? Grown children sat across from me, guessing, and sometimes arguing, at the worst moment of their lives.
And every so often a family walked in holding a folder. Everything was in it: the wishes, the phone numbers, where the papers were. You could see the difference in their faces. They could just grieve.
So I wrote down what I would tell you if you sat at my table, and I made the folder for you to fill in. It's written in plain words and in large print, and you don't have to finish it in one sitting.
Faye
What the first week asks of a family
A few numbers every family meets, usually for the first time, in the days after a death.
National median for a funeral with viewing and burial, before the cemetery and the headstone.
NFDA General Price List Study, 2023National median for a funeral with viewing and cremation.
NFDA General Price List Study, 2023of Americans are now expected to choose cremation. Many families don't know which one their parent wanted.
NFDA Cremation & Burial Report, 2025is the Social Security death payment, and only some spouses and children can get it. Most families expect more.
Social Security AdministrationYou have the right to an itemized price list and to buy only what you want. The book shows you how to read that list, and your file tells your children what you actually wanted.
What's inside · 79 pages
Part One explains what really happens. Part Two is where you leave your answers.
Part One
Read it once, and you'll know what to expect.
Part Two
Your wishes and your information, all in one place.
One page with only what's needed for the very first phone call. It goes on the refrigerator.
Word-for-word lines for calling a funeral home and asking for prices.
A short checklist to keep your file up to date, every birthday or New Year.
Look inside
Large print, plenty of room to write, and nothing you need a lawyer to understand.
How it works
You get the PDF by email right after you order. Open it on your computer, tablet or phone.
Type straight into the pages on your computer or tablet, or print it and write by hand. Do a few pages at a time.
Put it where they'll find it and put the Fridge Sheet on the refrigerator. Then go enjoy your day.
Leave It Ready
$27Launch price
Opening soonThe book opens in a few days.
Questions
No, it's a PDF you download right away. You can read it on any screen, type into it on a computer or tablet, or print it at home or at any print shop and keep it in a binder.
Yes. The pages of the Family File have boxes you can type into with a free PDF reader, like Adobe Acrobat Reader. Save the file, and you can update it whenever something changes.
Yes. The whole book is set in large print with plenty of space between lines and plenty of room to write.
The guide explains how things work across the United States and points out where the rules change from state to state, so you know when to check locally.
No. It's general information from a lifetime in funeral service, and a place to write down your wishes. It doesn't replace a will, and for legal or money questions you should talk to a lawyer or an advisor in your state.
Write within 30 days of your purchase and you'll get a full refund.