News Release for End-of-Life Professionals

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For Immediate Release: October 23, 2025

Suite of Conversation Cards Covers Every Step of the Journey: Preplanning, Tribute Planning and Grief

Brookfield, Wis. – Remembering A Life, a consumer education initiative created to educate people about the importance of remembering loved ones in meaningful ways after they die, has introduced a suite of conversation card decks that end-of-life professionals, including end-of-life doulas, hospice professionals, social workers and grief specialists, can use to inspire the families they serve to plan meaningful tributes to loved ones and help guide them on their grief journeys. The suite includes:

• Have the Talk of a Lifetime Conversation Cards: The perfect preplanning and get-to-know-you tool.
• Remembering A Life Funeral Planning Conversation Cards: The perfect tool for planning a unique, meaningful tribute.
• Remembering A Life Journey Cards: The perfect tool for exploring grief while honoring the life of a loved one.

Have the Talk of a Lifetime Conversation Cards get the conversation started and help family and friends get to know each other better so when it’s time to create a tribute for a loved one, they are better prepared to make it meaningful. Each of the 50 questions invites people to share stories about meaningful moments, relationships, objects, adventures, accomplishments and more. Additional prompts invite them to further explore their answers to each question, encouraging them to share their stories with others, pull out meaningful mementos or do an activity related to their answer.

“Have the Talk of a Lifetime Conversation Cards are the perfect conversation tool for families to get to know each other better so when there is a need, they are better able to create a tribute that beautifully reflects an individual’s interests, passions, relationships and accomplishments,” said Gail Marquardt, vice president of consumer engagement for Remembering A Life/National Funeral Directors Association. “The deck also offers end-of-life professionals the opportunity to get to know the individuals and families they serve.”

For end-of-life professionals, Have the Talk of a Lifetime Conversation Cards are the perfect get-to-know-you and storytelling tool. End-of-life professionals can give the cards to families they serve so they can get to know each other better. They can also use the cards as conversation starters while getting to know the individual they are serving. The cards are also the perfect gift after meeting with a family for the first time.

Remembering A Life Funeral Planning Conversation Cards help families and friends create a safe, comfortable environment for having a conversation about a person’s final wishes and help them plan a meaningful tribute for themselves or a loved one.

This deck of 52 thought-provoking questions will help get the conversation started and help put family members and friends at ease while talking about a topic that may generate a variety of emotions. Questions cover five key areas.
•    Talking About Death
•    Your Body
•    The Service
•    Honoring Your Life
•    The Details

Additional details on each card invite people to further explore the answers to their question and provide valuable information about topics such as having a viewing, working with a funeral home, and the benefits of preplanning, information that will help them as they consider their answers to the questions.

“End-of-life professionals often spend days, weeks or even months with an individual who is nearing the end of life,” said Marquardt. “They also develop relationships with the person’s family and friends and are therefore uniquely positioned to offer them and their loved one information and resources that will help create a smooth transition from the care of an end-of-life professional to the care of a funeral director. Remembering A Life Funeral Planning Conversation Cards are a practical yet gentle way to guide conversations about an individual’s final wishes and the wishes of their family members and friends.

“Inspiring people to have meaningful discussions about death and funerals isn’t easy,” continued Marquardt. “But this deck helps family members and friends create a safe, comfortable environment for having a conversation about a person’s final wishes and guides them in working with a funeral professional to plan a meaningful tribute for themselves or a loved one.”

End-of-life professionals can use the cards as a conversation tool to guide families in this important conversation. They may even want to help families document their wishes so they can have an even smore meaningful conversation when they first meet with a funeral professional.

Remembering A Life Journey Cards feature 52 ideas for remembering loved ones in meaningful ways. This deck helps family members and friends as they explore their grief journey, offering simple yet meaningful ways to keep a loved one’s memory close. Journaling, activity, storytelling and reflection prompts at the bottom of each card invite the user to make each activity even more meaningful.

“Remembering A Life Journey Cards take a thoughtful, gentle approach to exploring the grief journey,” said Marquardt. “With 52 ideas for honoring grief and keeping memories close, individuals can do one activity a week for a full year of activities or simply select a card as often as they are inspired to do so.”

For end-of-life professionals, Remembering A Life Journey Cards are a meaningful thank-you gift for families after they leave their care or even a few weeks afterwards to say, “I’m thinking of you as you continue on this difficult grief journey.”

All three decks of conversation cards are available at RememberingALife.com/Store. The decks are $15 each, but end-of-life professionals can receive decks for only $10 each using discount code EOL. Quantity discounts are also available, and decks can also be customized with a business’s logo.

Whether a family is preplanning or planning at time of need, meeting with a licensed funeral professional to discuss options and document an individual’s final wishes is a practical next step in ensuring those wishes are fulfilled. Remembering A Life’s Find A Funeral Home search tool makes it easy to find a reputable, NFDA-member funeral home. Visit RememberingALife.com/FindAFuneralHome.

For more information about Remembering A Life resources available to end-of-life professionals, including a free idea guide for end-of-life professionals, visit RememberingALife.org/EOL.

About Remembering A Life

Remembering A Life helps individuals and families remember their loved ones in meaningful ways, helping to keep the memory of loved ones alive and assisting family members and friends in moving forward in their grief. Remembering A Life educates families about the value of a funeral and helps them find an NFDA-member funeral director (RememberingALife.com/FindAFuneralHome) to help them create a meaningful service. The initiative also helps them as they begin the grief journey following the death of a loved one. Resources include the Remembering A Life website (RememberingALife.com), a podcast, book club, blog, conversation cards and thoughtful gifts for grieving family members and friends. Remembering A Life is a consumer education initiative of the National Funeral Directors Association. Follow Remembering A Life on Facebook and Instagram.

About the National Funeral Directors Association

NFDA is the world's leading and largest funeral service association representing 20,000 individual members who represent nearly 11,000 funeral homes in the United States and 49 countries around the world. NFDA is the trusted leader, beacon for ethics and the strongest advocate for the profession. NFDA is the association of choice because it offers funeral professionals comprehensive educational resources, tools to manage successful businesses, guidance to become pillars in their communities and the expertise to foster future generations of funeral professionals. NFDA is headquartered in Brookfield, Wis., and has an office in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit NFDA.org.

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Media Contact: Gail Marquardt, GMarquardt@NFDA.org

Editor's Note: Members of the media may request complimentary decks of Remembering A Life Conversation Cards from NFDA Vice President of Consumer Engagement Gail Marquardt, GMarquardt@NFDA.org.