The Newly-Dead Game is coming to NYC

Remember the old TV show The Newlywed Game? It debuted in 1966 and ran through 1974 in its first version.

The game pitted newly married couples against each other in a series of revealing question rounds to determine how well the spouses know (or don’t know) each other.

Time goes by and now all those newlyweds are long-married couples (we hope – providing their relationships survived The Newlywed Game and the general rigors of life).

It’s time for these couples to play a new game: the Newly-Dead® Game

My friend & game creator Gail Rubin, pioneering death educator and author of A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die and The Family Plot Blog, sought to create a fun way to help couples & families get past the fear of discussing funeral planning.

“Couples who have played this game often come away with a fresh appreciation of how much they still need to know about each other when it comes to funeral planning,” said Rubin. “Just as talking about sex won’t make you pregnant, talking about funerals won’t make you dead – and your family really does benefit from the conversation.”

Your emcees for this inaugural round of the New-Dead Game(R) are death educator & death doula Gabrielle Gatto and story-share holder of Things That Matter Martie McNabb.

Who knows we may even have the Doyenne of Death herself Zoom in for a visit???

Gabrielle R. Gatto is the creator of Grim Reaper Gossip, a community project with humor and education at the heart of conversations about death and dying. She is also the Coordinator of Public Programs at The Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn where she focuses on Death Education. She holds a certificate in Thanatology, is a graduate of the Going with Grace End of Life Training program, and supports the community as a death doula. Gabrielle is an Italian-American from Long Island who would like you to know her father is a plumber from Manhattan and her mother is a living saint from Brooklyn; she is very proud of them.

Martie has hosted over 200 story-sharing gatherings about the stories that get attached to Things. She’s on a mission to build deeper connections, community & legacy through the stories of the Things that Matter. She’s a regular host of Show & Tales for Green-Wood Cemeteries death education program. She was honored to be asked by Gail to host the Newly-Dead Game® for the Frozen Dead Guy Days in Nederland, Colorado in 2021