Life and Death

Besides attending ceremonies and signing policies after taking the oath of office, new US presidents are greeted with a cold reality: they start making their own funeral plans. That way the country will be prepared to celebrate their lives when they die. George H. W. Bush was asked if it was “weird” to be planning his own memorial. He replied, “You kind of get used to it.” Historians will write about their legacies, but presidents get to plan the personal and traditi