Two recent books have been published that allow readers to rethink their association with death and dying. A new book by J. Servon and L. Delany-Ullman called Saved: Objects of the Dead explores the idea of what we keep after someone has died. The book has been created by North Carolina-based artist Jody Servon and California-based poet Lorene Delany-Ullman. It features forty photographs and prose poems based on interviews they did with people and the objects they cherished after a loved-one died. Bringing the idea to social media, they also have a very interesting Instragram page where people can see saved objects and hear about why these particular objects were saved.
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Another unusual book worth exploring was recently written by Hadley Vlahos. Hadley is a young hospice nurse with a large social media following on Instagram, Tik Tok and other channels. She shares interesting stories from her experience as a hospice nurse, offering play acting the various parts of an encounter. She offers inspiration and hope for the experience of grieving for family members and helping a dying family member.
While death is typically addressed as a depressing topic, these books explore unchartered aspects of the process and ways that family members might address and think about death in new and unusual ways.