Hopefully, this does not come as a shock to anyone, but sooner or later, you’re going to die. The how and why of it might leave a little wiggle room but, without exception, you and everyone you know will eventually shuffle off this mortal coil. It’s something of an inevitability. The good news: what happens next is largely up to you.

That’s not a pitch designed to entice you into whatever brand of afterlife awaits you in the hereafter, but another kind of immortality altogether.

Terra Spencer is already well known as a Nova Scotian folksinger. In certain circles, however, she’s known for an entirely different skillset: seeing people off into the sunset of their lives as a funeral director. Spencer says that those two worlds are overlapping with the increasing popularity of “legacy songs”: bespoke anthems to help the deceased and deceasing make their final exeunt while avoiding going gentle — or at least not going quietly — into that good night. Continue reading Death & Dirges: Terra Spencer on How To Avoid Going Quietly Into That Good Night →