Solace’s 5 Most Popular 2022 Blogs

by Rebecca Roberts Galloway | Dec 28, 2022

It is hard to believe we’ve made another trip around the sun. At Solace Cremation, 2022 has been a year of new beginnings and we look forward to serving even more families in 2023.

While our readers found a wide variety of blogs that resonated with them over this past year, some of our perennial favorites are still finding an audience, whether it was 8 Things You Can Do with Cremation Ashes, Which National Parks Allow ‘Ash’ Scattering or Debunking an Urban Legend: Walt Disney Isn’t Frozen.

From practical advice to quirky hobbies, there was something in our After All blog for everyone in 2022. Whatever this year has meant to you, we at Solace wish you a happy new year ahead.

1. How to Clean Out a Loved One’s Possessions

As hospice nurse and death doula Gabby Jimenez shared with us, cleaning out the closets and drawers of someone who died is one of the hardest things to do. Even Anderson Cooper was so moved by his experience, he created a popular podcast about the process. Our blog shared advice about how to make the task a little easier while noting that it can also help us remember our loved ones.

2. Archivist Finds Joy in Baking Headstone Recipes

For some, a single recipe may help loved ones remember them. We talked with Rosie Grant, the @ghostlyarchive on social media. She’s been collecting recipes at cemeteries posted on headstones, sharing them and baking them. Grant is an archivist by training and finds the history in cemeteries to be like “an open-air museum.”

3. 3 Lessons from the Death of the Queen

After the death of Queen Elizabeth II, retired palliative care doctor and author Kathryn Mannix shared thoughts about the queens “ordinary dying.” Her posts went viral as people thought about the death they saw in plain sight. Mannix has been working for years to normalize death and the queen’s passing was a golden opportunity to continue her quest with a tangible example.

4. Five Final Presidential Resting Places

From George Washington to John F. Kennedy, these presidential resting places provide a unique lens into history. Knowing more about how the sites were chosen and what went into creating them is an interesting view of each of these leaders and their families and for some, the inspiration behind a summer road trip.

5. The Future of the End

Last January, we talked to the “rock stars” of palliative care, doctors Kathryn Mannix, BJ Miller and Ira Byock. They shared what they saw coming in the future in medicine from better cancer survival rates to the continued growth in dementia. The three doctors all are working to improve care for us at the end-of-life and to normalize conversations around death and dying. BJ Miller shared his cautious optimism about improving care through the democratizing of health. “My nickel is on us as a people evolving how we think about aging, disability and death.”

At Solace, we want to thank you for your interest in our blogs and wish you a happy new year!

Photo: Kenta Kikuchi