A Path Home

Today I have a conversation with Darshan Stevens on Cortes Island in British Columbia. Darshan and her mother, Jennifer, lived on the same property when Jen was diagnosed with cancer. For two years they navigated her cancer treatments. In the end, Jen chose MAID, Medical Assistance In Dying. Darshan shares the story of her mum's dying, death, the after-death care and the natural burial that they and the family co-created along with the help of the community-led death care collective on the island.
https://cortescurrents.ca/darshan-stevens-her-mothers-life-death-and-afterward/

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In early December, 2021, Adrienne Parker discovered that her oldest child, Brandyn, had died in his car.  Brandyn's life had been caught in a cycle of mental illness and incarceration, resulting in his being homeless and living in his car.  His body needed to be examined by the coroner before Adrienne, with the help of her friend, Rebecca, had him brought back home to be cared for there by his loving family.

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Today we hear from two members of the Arizona Community Death Care collective, Dani LaVoire and Jade Sherer. This is another episode that will be of interest to those listeners who are either already engaged in or just beginning to form community groups. If you have any questions for the AZ collective you can reach out to them here: https://www.azcommunitydeathcare.org/mission
The website for White Eagle Memorial Preserve is here:
https://www.naturalburialground.org/
And to learn more about Jade's offerings check out these beautiful pages:
https://www.itsournature.net/
https://www.patreon.com/jadesherer
http://insig.ht/jadesherer

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Sarah is joined by Angela and Michael Franklin, founders of Crossroads Community DeathCare, for an in-depth conversation on how engaging in community led death care has the potential to shift the culture around dying and death.
To find out more about what they offer, find them on Facebook:
https://m.facebook.com/crossroadsdeathcare 
and Instagram:
https://instagram.com/crossroads_deathcare

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Tim Johnson shares the story of choosing to care for his dad at home, and his journey getting there through the stories of two other significant deaths in the family. 
To see Debbie Wagner's art work click here: http://www.debbiewagnerart.com/

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On this episode Sarah has a conversation with three members of a community led death care group in Canada. They share the touching story of bringing Gypsy's son, Andrew, home to the island to care for his body and lay him to rest in a natural burial.
Here is the link to the article: https://news.yahoo.com/grassy-green-future-composting-human-095323526.html
And the Community-Led Death Care group:
https://communityleddeathcare.ca/

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Sarah has a conversation with North Carolina based singer songwriter Laurelyn Dossett who shares the story of the burial she and her brothers provided for their mother in a hand crafted wooden box in Laurelyn’s garden.
Here's the link to her piece,  A Family Project, in The Bitter Southerner:
https://bittersoutherner.com/feature/2022/a-family-project
Find out more about Laurelyn and her music here:
https://www.laurelyndossett.com/ 

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Today I have a conversation with Kelly Parker. Kelly’s husband Rick Robson died in late January and was buried at Heart Land Prairie Cemetery earlier this month. Rick had determined that he wanted to have a green burial and sent an email to me through the cemetery website inquiring about building his own casket. Over the course of the next few months, Kelly and Rick, educated themselves about the logistics and legalities of home funeral practice. They ultimately decided that not only would he have a natural burial in a homemade casket, but that Kelly, along with their family and the support of their community of friends and hospice would make all the arrangements, care for his body themselves, and keep him in the home he designed and built with Kelly until it was time for the burial.

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Today I have a conversation with four members of the Threshold Care Circle in Viroqua, Wisconsin; Charlene Elderkin, Susan Nesbitt, Kelly Whited-Ford, and Tracy Mangold. Threshold Care Circle began as a community death care collective in 2006. On this episode, we’ll hear how they got started and eventually evolved into an educational 501c3 providing workshops, death care support and advocating for green burial.
https://www.thresholdcarecircle.org/

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Emily Miller shares her experience of opening Colorado's first dedicated green burial ground, Colorado Burial Preserve.
https://www.coloradoburialpreserve.com/
https://www.greenburialcouncil.org/so_you_want_to_start_a_green_burial_cemetery.html

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