Now even funerals are livestreamed—and families are grateful

Enlarge / A receiving line of guests next to the casket at a funeral in a funeral home. (credit: Getty Images)

The call came on January 2. It was early enough in the morning that Natalie Levy probably shouldn't have been awake-she had recently left a high-stress job at a private-equity firm in San Francisco, and was determined to relax a bit-but her dog had woken her up.

It was her sister on the line. "When's the last time you spoke to mom?" Levy remembers her asking. The worry in her voice was palpable. Levy's sister was supposed to meet her mother that day in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where both lived, but the mother didn't show.

Levy felt the panic rising. "Within probably an hour and a half, I was calling the Ann Arbor police, crying on the phone," Levy recalled. "Something seemed so off." Then, another call from her sister, who had searched her mom's house with neighbors: They had found a receipt for a gun in the kitchen.

Read 27 remaining paragraphs | Comments