
Have the Last Word
Write Your Own Obituary (and Learn to Live)
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $15.36
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Jerry Lyden
-
Giz Coughlin
-
Todd Lewis
-
By:
-
Craig C. Dunford
About this listen
Craig Dunford missed his friend’s funeral and promised himself he’d be more faithful in checking the obituary page every day. Little did he know that reading about the dead would give him the tools to really begin living.
It all started when he came across a first-person obituary, written by a 30-year-old wife, mother, and friend who felt she was taken too soon. It was brimming with humor, pathos, and well, Life. He decided he would try to write what was important to him, and found himself having to live up to his own obituary!
Over the years Craig has collected many self-written obituaries from young to old, rich to poor, and from all walks of life. These life stories are filled sympathy, wit, intelligence and history. He updates his obituary regularly and has decided to have the last word on all aspects of his departure.
Have you always wanted the last word? Write your own obituary and you can achieve that goal. Want a green funeral? You can be buried in a biodegradable clamshell. Were you the jewel of someone’s life? Turn yourself into a blue diamond. Craig will tell you how. Are you afraid nobody will come to your big event? Hire a professional mourner. Not enough friends to carry you to your final resting place? Throw pall bearer cocktail parties and you can pick and choose those who will carry you home over martinis and cheese.
This resource guide provokes thought and action. It teaches but doesn’t preach. There are few more eye-opening activities than defining what is important to one’s self than writing your own obituary.
©2011 Craig C. Dunford (P)2011 Floating Word PressListeners also enjoyed...
-
Finding Meaning
- The Sixth Stage of Grief
- By: David Kessler
- Narrated by: David Kessler
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this groundbreaking new work, David Kessler - an expert on grief and the coauthor with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross of the iconic On Grief and Grieving - journeys beyond the classic five stages to discover a sixth stage: meaning.
-
-
paying it forward
- By Sandra Sena on 07-11-20
By: David Kessler
-
Before and After
- The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children's Home Society
- By: Judy Christie, Lisa Wingate
- Narrated by: Emily Rankin
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the 1920s to 1950, Georgia Tann ran a black-market baby business at the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis. The publication of Lisa Wingate’s novel Before We Were Yours brought new awareness of Tann’s lucrative career in child trafficking. Adoptees who knew little about their pasts gained insight into the startling facts behind their family histories. Encouraged by their contact with Wingate and award-winning journalist Judy Christie, who documented the stories of 15 adoptees in this book, many determined Tann survivors set out to trace their roots.
-
-
Badly written
- By Stacie on 02-25-20
By: Judy Christie, and others
-
The Beauty of What Remains
- How Our Greatest Fear Becomes Our Greatest Gift
- By: Steve Leder
- Narrated by: Steve Leder
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the senior rabbi of one of the largest synagogues in the world, Steve Leder has learned over and over again the many ways death teaches us how to live and love more deeply by showing us not only what is gone but also the beauty of what remains. This inspiring and comforting book takes us on a journey through the experience of loss that is fundamental to everyone.
-
-
MAY BECOME A CLASSIC
- By Alamo Don on 01-07-21
By: Steve Leder
-
Love Can't Tell Time
- Why Love Never Dies
- By: Allison DuBois
- Narrated by: Allison DuBois
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Allison DuBois has had the privilege of connecting tens of thousands of people with their lost loved ones around the world. She has been invited into people's lives and experienced their stories of loss. It is not all tragedy, though. There is a recurring theme of people having forever love connections, whether they are family members, friends or couples; some call themselves soulmates. These loving relationships do not end.
By: Allison DuBois
-
Women Rowing North
- By: Mary Pipher
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Women growing older contend with ageism, misogyny and loss. Yet as Mary Pipher shows, most older women are deeply happy and filled with gratitude for the gifts of life. Their struggles help them grow into the authentic, empathetic and wise people they have always wanted to be. In Women Rowing North, Pipher offers a timely examination of the cultural and developmental issues women face as they age.
-
-
The narrator is a distraction
- By Amazon Customer on 03-01-19
By: Mary Pipher
-
Becoming Elisabeth Elliot
- By: Ellen Vaughn
- Narrated by: Connie Shabshab
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Elisabeth Elliot was a young missionary in Ecuador when members of a violent Amazonian tribe savagely speared her husband, Jim, and his four colleagues. Incredibly, prayerfully, Elisabeth took her toddler daughter, snakebite kit, Bible, and journal...and lived in the jungle with the stone-age people who killed her husband. In this authorized biography, Ellen Vaughn uses Elisabeth’s private, unpublished journals, and candid interviews with her family and friends, to paint the adventures and misadventures God used to shape one of the most influential women in modern church history.
-
-
Great book!
- By Dove on 09-27-20
By: Ellen Vaughn
-
Finding Meaning
- The Sixth Stage of Grief
- By: David Kessler
- Narrated by: David Kessler
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this groundbreaking new work, David Kessler - an expert on grief and the coauthor with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross of the iconic On Grief and Grieving - journeys beyond the classic five stages to discover a sixth stage: meaning.
-
-
paying it forward
- By Sandra Sena on 07-11-20
By: David Kessler
-
Before and After
- The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children's Home Society
- By: Judy Christie, Lisa Wingate
- Narrated by: Emily Rankin
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the 1920s to 1950, Georgia Tann ran a black-market baby business at the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis. The publication of Lisa Wingate’s novel Before We Were Yours brought new awareness of Tann’s lucrative career in child trafficking. Adoptees who knew little about their pasts gained insight into the startling facts behind their family histories. Encouraged by their contact with Wingate and award-winning journalist Judy Christie, who documented the stories of 15 adoptees in this book, many determined Tann survivors set out to trace their roots.
-
-
Badly written
- By Stacie on 02-25-20
By: Judy Christie, and others
-
The Beauty of What Remains
- How Our Greatest Fear Becomes Our Greatest Gift
- By: Steve Leder
- Narrated by: Steve Leder
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the senior rabbi of one of the largest synagogues in the world, Steve Leder has learned over and over again the many ways death teaches us how to live and love more deeply by showing us not only what is gone but also the beauty of what remains. This inspiring and comforting book takes us on a journey through the experience of loss that is fundamental to everyone.
-
-
MAY BECOME A CLASSIC
- By Alamo Don on 01-07-21
By: Steve Leder
-
Love Can't Tell Time
- Why Love Never Dies
- By: Allison DuBois
- Narrated by: Allison DuBois
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Allison DuBois has had the privilege of connecting tens of thousands of people with their lost loved ones around the world. She has been invited into people's lives and experienced their stories of loss. It is not all tragedy, though. There is a recurring theme of people having forever love connections, whether they are family members, friends or couples; some call themselves soulmates. These loving relationships do not end.
By: Allison DuBois
-
Women Rowing North
- By: Mary Pipher
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Women growing older contend with ageism, misogyny and loss. Yet as Mary Pipher shows, most older women are deeply happy and filled with gratitude for the gifts of life. Their struggles help them grow into the authentic, empathetic and wise people they have always wanted to be. In Women Rowing North, Pipher offers a timely examination of the cultural and developmental issues women face as they age.
-
-
The narrator is a distraction
- By Amazon Customer on 03-01-19
By: Mary Pipher
-
Becoming Elisabeth Elliot
- By: Ellen Vaughn
- Narrated by: Connie Shabshab
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Elisabeth Elliot was a young missionary in Ecuador when members of a violent Amazonian tribe savagely speared her husband, Jim, and his four colleagues. Incredibly, prayerfully, Elisabeth took her toddler daughter, snakebite kit, Bible, and journal...and lived in the jungle with the stone-age people who killed her husband. In this authorized biography, Ellen Vaughn uses Elisabeth’s private, unpublished journals, and candid interviews with her family and friends, to paint the adventures and misadventures God used to shape one of the most influential women in modern church history.
-
-
Great book!
- By Dove on 09-27-20
By: Ellen Vaughn
-
Life's That Way
- By: Jim Beaver
- Narrated by: Jim Beaver
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Actor Jim Beaver (Supernatural, Deadwood, Justified) and his wife Cecily Adams (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Moogie) were at the peaks of their careers and happily raising a beautiful two-year old daughter, Madeline. Then tragedy struck, not once, but twice. What followed was laid down by Jim in a moving, poignant, and uplifting journal of the following year, a year filled with heartbreak as well as enormous gifts and invaluable lessons, not just for Jim and his family but for listeners who traveled along with him on his journey.
-
-
worth it
- By kelly on 10-04-19
By: Jim Beaver
-
My Wynter Season
- Seeing God's Faithfulness in the Shadow of Grief
- By: Jonathan Pitts, Tony Evans - foreword
- Narrated by: Jonathan Pitts
- Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Jonathan Pitts took his wife of 15 years into his arms for their anniversary dance, he had no idea that within a month he would be on a completely different journey, navigating life after Wynter's sudden death at the age of 38. Without warning, the future his family had planned together dissolved, leaving Jonathan trying to answer the question that echoed through his daughters' hearts and his own. My Wynter Season is Jonathan's story of losing the most wonderful gift he had ever been given and his journey toward understanding life without her.
-
-
Authentic and Inspiring
- By clmartin72 on 03-19-25
By: Jonathan Pitts, and others
-
More Beautiful Than Before
- How Suffering Transforms Us
- By: Steve Leder
- Narrated by: Steve Leder
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every one of us sooner or later walks through hell. The hell of being hurt, the hell of hurting another. The hell of cancer, the hell of a reluctant, thunking shovel full of earth upon the casket of someone we deeply loved, the hell of betrayal, the hell of betraying, the hell of divorce, the hell of a kid in trouble...the hell of knowing that this year, like any year, may be our last. We all walk through hell. The point is not to come out empty-handed.... There is real and profound power in the suffering we endure if we transform that suffering into a more authentic, meaningful life.
-
-
Learning from Pain
- By Dave on 02-20-19
By: Steve Leder
-
Why Are We Here?
- Reflections on Life from a Spiritual Medium
- By: Daniel John
- Narrated by: Daniel John
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author Daniel John covers answers to some of the most commonly asked questions we ask as human beings. Daniel is a certified spiritual medium with a unique perspective to share. Being raised Catholic and becoming a "saved" Christian in high school, Daniel didn't know what to think when he had a spirit "come to him" at a restaurant one evening. It took plenty of research, faith, trust, and guidance from God and a lot of ups and downs to finally uncover his life purpose.
-
-
Such an amazing book
- By Jessica Reed on 08-03-22
By: Daniel John
-
Messages from Above
- What Your Loved Ones in Heaven Want You to Know
- By: Monica The Medium, Monica Ten-Kate
- Narrated by: Monica the Medium
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Infused with Monica's signature blend of empathy, authenticity, and light-hearted humor, Messages from Above will make you laugh as much as you cry. It's for anyone who's ever struggled with unresolved questions and feelings such as guilt or disbelief after losing a loved one. It's for people who've wondered: What happens when we die? Do dogs go to Heaven? What are soul contracts? Can the dead watch us have sex?
-
-
Far superior than any other book in this genre!!
- By Lisa K. on 02-27-20
By: Monica The Medium, and others
-
Everything Beautiful in Its Time
- Seasons of Love and Loss
- By: Jenna Bush Hager
- Narrated by: Jenna Bush Hager
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Now the mother of three young children, Jenna pays homage to her grandparents in this collection of heartwarming, intimate personal essays. Filled with love, laughter, and unforgettable stories, Everything Beautiful in Its Time captures the joyous and bittersweet nature of life itself. Jenna reflects on the single year in which she and her family lost Barbara and George H. W. Bush, and Jenna Welch. Jenna reveals how they navigated this difficult period with grace, faith, and nostalgic humor, uplifted by their grandparents' sage advice and incomparable spirits.
-
-
A True Love Story
- By Unglaza on 09-12-20
By: Jenna Bush Hager
-
When Heaven Calls
- By: Matt Fraser
- Narrated by: Matt Fraser
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
People who are not in the habit of talking with the dead have a hard time imagining what Matt Fraser’s life is like. Based on the questions he gets, they seem to think he spends most of his time sitting cross-legged in a trance, maybe hovering a few inches off the ground, leaving his physical body behind as he journeys across the veil to the spirit realm. But it’s not like that at all.
-
-
No useful information
- By Tracker Buckmann on 09-20-21
By: Matt Fraser
-
Laughing Through the Ugly Cry
- ...and Finding Unstoppable Joy
- By: Dawn Barton
- Narrated by: Dawn Barton
- Length: 3 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this collection of honest and sometimes raw stories, Dawn throws a loving, untoned arm around listeners as she brings them along on her journey through the loss of a child, divorce, cancer, rape, the death of her only sibling, her husband's substance abuse, and finding her way back to Jesus in the middle of it all. Dawn shares her personal story to show listeners how to find happiness and purpose even in the darkest of days. A beautiful gift book, Laughing Through the Ugly Cry is a great reminder to your girlfriends that you are with them every step of the way.
-
-
Honesty
- By Carol Bass on 02-08-25
By: Dawn Barton
-
This Just Speaks to Me
- Words to Live By Every Day
- By: Hoda Kotb
- Narrated by: Hoda Kotb
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hoda is back, with 365 new quotes and stories to share with her beloved fans. In This Just Speaks to Me, she writes about the people and moments that have enriched her life, discussing everything from motherhood and friendship to love and loss. The book also celebrates the countless acts of kindness that unfolded during these uniquely challenging times.
-
-
This Just Speaks to Me
- By Mackinaw512 on 10-27-20
By: Hoda Kotb
-
Resilience
- Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities
- By: Elizabeth Edwards
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Edwards
- Length: 4 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While on the campaign trail, Elizabeth Edwards met many others who have had to contend with serious adversity in their lives, and in Resilience, she draws on their experiences as well as her own, crafting an unsentimental and ultimately inspirational meditation on the gifts we can find among life's biggest challenges.
-
-
Sad
- By kathryn on 02-02-10
-
You Can't Make This Stuff Up
- Life Changing Lessons from Heaven
- By: Theresa Caputo
- Narrated by: Theresa Caputo
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In You Can’t Make This Stuff Up, Theresa imparts the life-changing wisdom she’s received from Spirit and client readings.
Each chapter incorporates a powerful lesson that is made real by Theresa’s witty and wise insights. She shares moving client stories and fascinating behind-the-scenes tales from her life and hit reality show to help people find peace and closure and to better understand the spiritual world.
-
-
A MUST READ!!!
- By Michelle McKee on 11-02-15
By: Theresa Caputo
-
Think You'll Be Happy
- Moving Through Grief with Grit, Grace, and Gratitude
- By: Nicole Avant
- Narrated by: Nicole Avant
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nicole Avant—diplomat, philanthropist, filmmaker—grew up surrounded by some of the most extraordinary artists of our time: Bill Withers, Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, Sidney Poitier. Her parents—entertainment mogul, Clarence Avant, and legendary philanthropist, Jacqueline Avant—turned their home into a place of refuge and inspiration for a generation of geniuses. Nicole drew on that magical upbringing to create a stellar career in the music business, become the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas, and produce critically acclaimed award-winning films and documentaries.
-
-
Religious
- By Shannon M. Holt on 11-18-23
By: Nicole Avant