This is a book that I feel every person must read at some point in their life. We in this age have become so far removed from the concept of death - it is something foreign and remote, a specter we are rarely touched by. But this book reminds us two important things about mortality - that by turning a blind eye to it, we impose the burden of responsibility onto others; and that death serves to remind us of the facts about ourselves that make us so alive to begin with.

I’ve never thought much about what I’d like to happen to me after I die, but I COULDN’T stop thinking about it while reading this book. Not in a bad way, necessarily. Rather, I think this book made me conscious of the intricate web of death workers, whose roles and responsibilities I had never really considered. This book made me question long-held ideas about death which I had always assumed to be true, and allowed me to rethink the way in which I would like to be cared for. It is imperative that we hear these stories, such that we might consider more about not only ourselves, but in the way we treat each other - alive or dead.

The quote that stuck with me: “It isn’t perfect, but you gave him back to me. Thank you.”