April 2006 Vol. 25. No. 4

Published by the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in Eureka, California. HSRC is a non-profit community-based organization offering services for senior citizens, multi-generational families and caregivers.

Eating food from the land: Redwood Roots Farm grows fresh organic produce

Plan ahead: Funeral Consumers Alliance of Humboldt announces April 22 meeting

Growing our local food: Farmers' markets continue tradition of small farming

Calling all gardeners

Area Agency on Aging Public hearings reveal issues

Fortuna senior activities: Wellness Lecture Series at Senior Dining Room

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The web site AllExperts.com lists Lisa Carlson as an expert in funeral law. Users of this web site give her a score of a perfect 10 for knowledge, clarity, response time and, yes, even politeness. She will be the featured speaker at the annual membership meeting of the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Humboldt on Saturday, April 22, 1 p.m. at the Humboldt Area Foundation, 373 Indianola Road. The public is invited.

Lisa Carlson is a full-time consumer activist and some-time hell raiser, working on behalf of Americans to protect their rights in dealing with the funeral industry. She is a former executive director of the national Funeral Consumers Alliance and is currently the executive director of the Funeral Ethics Organization.

Carlson is a popular public speaker, well-known for injecting hilarious and sometimes irreverent humor to make her audiences more receptive to thinking about the subjects that most of us prefer to avoid. She is also a sought-after guest for talk shows, having appeared on hundreds of national and local television and radio programs. Carlson also frequently testifies on behalf of consumers before legislative and regulatory panels and often serves as an expert witness in court cases.

Her first book, released in the 1980s, provided information for people who wanted to care for their own dead, bypassing the funeral industry entirely, giving state-by-state information on laws, regulations and services available. In the late 1990s, her landmark book Caring for the Dead: Your Final Act of Love was published. While continuing to inform those who wish to avoid the funeral industry entirely, her new book also covers rights and options for dealing with death-care providers, thoroughly explaining funeral law in language understandable by lay people. It is the major source of information for anybody wishing to understand and take charge of funeral arrangements for a friend or relative without being taken advantage of by people aggressively selling funeral goods.

Please join us Saturday, April 22, Immediately preceding our keynote speaker there will be a brief FCA business meeting. For more information contact the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Humboldt at 822-8599.