Most of us have lost someone close but what do you do when an immediate family member dies?! I am not talking about mourning - there is barely any time for that if you are responsible for funeral and other arrangements. It has recently come to my attention that the loss of a loved one requires extensive managerial skills.

Between taking your deceased friend to the morgue, completing the identification process and choosing the appropriate burial wardrobe, one barely has time to organize the funeral, let alone be emotional. Then come the obituaries - you first have to arrange the funeral in order to announce it but do not want to arrange the funeral before you know you can make the obituary deadline for it to be published at least a day prior to the funeral, so that people can be informed.

How about finance? Old people often keep a savings account for their own funeral. The more organized ones even have their burial wardrobe set aside - clean and ironed - ready at all times.While the idea of this death bureaucratization gives me the chills, I do see some reason behind it. In a society where we have been so removed from the essence of life that we barely ever talk about death, a bureaucratic mechanism may just be the answer to keep people sane during hard times. Nonetheless, I think it's all rather sad.

"Fun" fact: Ever thought about what happens to your social website accounts in the event of death? Deutsche Welle recently ran a report on a new virtual burial agency called My WebWill. My WebWill takes on the responsibility for erasing you from Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc in the event of death, while also giving you the possibility of transferring your user name and password to a loved one. At the cost of $17 per year you can leave your electronic credentials to My WebWill, which in turn ensures that your virtual will is fulfilled, whether it be transferring electronic poker chips to another user name or deactivating multiple accounts.