Designing a Funeral Service

This information was mainly extracted from a video by Sarah Kerr from the Centre for Sacred Death Care. A funeral service is a focused intentional ritual that facilitates healing. When done well, it serves the person who has died, the close family and friends, and the larger community. This requires a structure able to hold the depth of grief and…

What Is A Death Doula?

A death doula is a non-medical person trained to care for someone holistically (physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually) at the end-of-life. They recognize death as a natural, accepted, and honoured part of life. Death doulas are also known as end-of-life coaches, transition guides, and end-of-life doulas. Although we’ve been dying for thousands of years, it is only in the last…

Care of the Body At Home

Many people are not aware that in British Columbia it is legal to care for a body at home. Family and friends are allowed to sit with, wash, dress, and otherwise tend to the body. They can build a casket, make funeral arrangements, and provide transportation to the cemetery or crematorium. There is no legal requirement to use the services…

Benefits of a Home Funeral Vigil

After a loved one dies, why keep the body at home? What advantages are there to undertaking the death related tasks ourselves? Don Morris, a death educator from Victoria and one of our teachers, has written the following: Enhances participation – Home funeral vigils offer opportunities for participation which fosters healing from grief. Rochelle Martin of Ontario’s Home Funeral Alternatives says, “family…

Death Certificate

Medical Certification of Death or Death Certificate? These are two distinctly different legal documents that are both often referred to as the Death Certificate, thus creating confusion. The Medical Certification of Death or Coroner’s Medical Certificate of Death is a document completed and signed by a physician, nurse practitioner, or coroner. It includes the name of the deceased, and the…

Embalming

Embalming is the art and science of preserving a human body after death to delay decomposition. This practice goes back thousands of years. The Egyptians had elaborate rituals for their pharaohs that included embalming, believing the soul would return to the body, but only if it could recognize the body it belonged to. In the 17th and 18th centuries in…