I’ll compile resources I come across in my exploration of the modern death care movement here. If you have something you recommend please pass it along and feel free to ask any questions, I will do my best to direct you to the appropriate resource. Thanks and enjoy your journey.
“Hope is not a plan.”
“Death is not a medical emergency.”
Death Doula Jane‘s TED Talk: What I learned about life from death
Death Care Education:
Art of Death Midwifery from Sacred Crossings
The Center for Sacred Death Care
Film:
100 Things, a chapter from Consider the Conversation: A Documentary on a Taboo Subject
Death Positive and Green Funeral Homes, Burial Grounds and Resources:
Sacred Crossings (Funeral home in Los Angeles area)
Herland Forest (Natural Burial Forest in Wahkiacus, Washington)
Recompose (Natural Organic Reduction (human composting) service in Seattle, WA; as of 2023 legal in WA, CO, OR, CA, NY & VT – legalization tracker here)
The Natural Funeral (CO funeral home that does NOR)
Home Funeral Resources
Aquamation Resources
Bradshaw Funeral Home (Stillwater, MN)
VSED (Voluntary Stopping Eating and Drinking):
Planning Resources:
Free Death File Checklist from Sacred Crossings
Advanced Death Care Directive from Sacred Crossings ($10)
Meditation:
Virtual Living Funeral Ceremony
Grief:
Listening Line from A Sacred Passing – you can call and chat with a trained listener, or become a trained listener!
Grief and Death Anxiety Support from the Virtual Death Doula Network (15 minutes free and then sliding scale)
Modern Loss – Blog
What’s Your Grief? Online resources
Refuge in Grief, from the author of “It’s OK That You’re Not OK”
The Center for Loss & Life Transition, from Dr. Alan Wolfelt
Books for Grieving a Spouse from Allina
Allina’s grief support group resources
Media:
What if we treated death like birth? By Jane Whitlock
“Good Death” Podcast from Terrible, Thanks for Asking regarding Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD)
Swedish Death Cleaning:
Swedish Death Cleaning on ITV
Books (largely compiled by Janet Brown of the MN Death Collaborative):
Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them): A Practical Perspective on Death and
Dying by Sallie Tisdale
Being with Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death by Joan
Halifax
A Beginners Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death by BJ Miller, MD and Shoshana Berger
Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying By Mirabai Bush and Ram Dass
The Art of Dying Well: A Practical Guide to a Good End of Life by Katy Butler
Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul by Stephen Jenkinson
An Energy Healer’s Book of Dying: For Caregivers and Those in Transition by Suzanne Worthley
Accompanying the Dying: Practical, Heart-Centered Wisdom for End-Of-Life Doulas and Health Care Advocates by Deanna Cochran
At the Bedside: An end-of-life guidebook for clinicians, caregivers, volunteers, friends and family
members who provide comfort and care to those who are dying by Gabrielle Elise Jimenez
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Choosing to Die: A Personal Stoy by Phyllis Shacter
Greening Death: Reclaiming Burial Practices and Restoring Our Tie to The Earth by Suzanne
Kelly
Heartwood: The Art of Living with the End in Mind by Barbara Becker
Holding Space: On Loving, Dying and Letting Go By Amy Wright Glenn
Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death by Katy Butler
LGBTQ-Inclusive Hospice and Palliative Care: A Practical Guide to Transforming Professional
Practice by Kimberly D. Acquaviva
Love and Fear: Stories from a Hospice Chaplain by Renshin Bunce
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem
Preparing for a Better End: Expert Lessons on Death and Dying for You and Your Loved Ones by Dan Morhaim and Shelley Morhaim
Re-Imagining the End of Life: Self-Development & Reflective Practices for Nurse Coaches by Janet Booth
Sacred Dying: Creating Rituals for Embracing the End of Life by Megory Anderson
The Afterlife of Billy Fingers: How My Bad-Boy Brother Proved to Me There’s Life After Death by
Annie Kagan and Dr. Raymond Moody MD PhD
The American Way of Death Revisited by Jessica Mitford
The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett: A Novel by Annie Lyons, Nicolette McKenzie, et al
The Lost Art of Dying: Reviving Forgotten Wisdom by LS DugdaleWalking Each Other Home: Conversations on
Loving and Dying By Mirabai Bush and Ram Dass
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi and Abraham Verghese
Children’s Books:
Cry, Heart, But Never Break by Glenn Ringtved