Death and Dying Customs

Long thought to help the dearly departed on their journey through the underworld, the personalized items that decorate an altar or gravesite on Dia de los Muertos can be as varied as the personalities they are supposed to aid. Decorations can be photos,...

When registered nurse Kelcey Wellman tells parents their infant shouldn't sleep with stuffed animals or baby bumper, she said they're often surprised. "If the baby gets over in the corner, they can suffocate," said Wellman, who works with pregnant...

Maryland’s vote for marriage equality makes me proud To the editor: Kudos to Tim Rowland for his column supporting marriage equality (“In America, rights take precedent over beliefs,” Nov. 4). Love requires that everyone be treated...

If you've been aching to hear a band play the greatest hits of the 1860s, you're in luck. The Federal City Brass Band is scheduled to give a free concert at Fort Monroe in Hampton 7 p.m. Thursday, June 21. Founded in 2002, the group recreates the sound...

This year, about 40,000 people in the United States will chose to end their lives. It’s a sobering statistic from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Equally sobering is the fact that it might be someone you know — a family...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexicans cleaned the bones of dead relatives and decorated their graves with flowers and candy skulls. In Haiti, voodoo practitioners circled an iron cross at a cemetery and poured moonshine to honor their ancestors. Some...

Allie Mac Kay has a preview of the 12th Annual Day of the Dead festival in Canoga Park. Día de los Muertos, (The Day of the Dead), is a celebration, which represents the merging of an ancient Aztec celebration with Catholicism. The tradition grew from the...

By John Maruskin Clark County Library Last week the library hosted the Gateway Paranormal Society for a program about ghost hunting or how to spot spirits who had not passed over to the other side. This Thursday, Oct. 25, the library’s Reference...

Only 4 months and 4 days old, Becky Borchardt dozed off on her tummy on a couch at her child care provider's home. She never woke up. Since sudden infant death syndrome took Becky's life 21 years ago, her mother, Downers Grove resident Pam Borchardt, has...

In the 17th century, she was known as “Lily of the Mohawks,” a Catholic convert scarred by smallpox and ostracized by her tribe but unshaken in her faith. After Sunday, she will be known as St. Catherine Tekakwitha, the first Native...

Almost four years after her husband's death from Parkinson's disease, former Sacramento County, Calif., supervisor Sandra Smoley has reinvented her life. She rented out the Fair Oaks home where she lived with her late husband, architect Walter Rohrer,...

California's political watchdog agency said it was unable to substantiate allegations that the interim head of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum illegally sought a job with USC while he was responsible for protecting taxpayers in talks to turn over...