Here are resources I’ve come across in my exploration of the modern death care movement. 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 Doula Jane (And the TED Talk Jane references on her page: BJ Miller: What Really Matters at the End of Life)

Podcast: In Sickness: An Interview with End of Life Doula Jane Whitlock

Virtual Death Doula

Minnesota Death Collaborative

Going with Grace

A Thousand Hands

Inspired Journeys

Barbara Karnes’s Resources (website)

Preparation for EOL & the Continuing Conversation about What Matters:

Go Wish Cards by Coda Alliance

The Conversation Project

Compassion and Choices: Tools to finish strong

Advanced Care Planning Resources (myriad from Stanford)

Coalition for Compassionate Care of California – Resources

The Dartmouth Dementia Directive

Five Wishes

My Directives

Advanced Death Care Directive from Sacred Crossings

Free Death File Checklist from Sacred Crossings

Willow EOL Planning & Education

ELDR: End of Life Planning

Death Care Education:

The Order of The Good Death

A Sacred Passing

Art of Death Midwifery from Sacred Crossings

The Center for Sacred Death Care

Going with Grace

Deathwives

Film:

100 Things, a chapter from Consider the Conversation: A Documentary on a Taboo Subject

Consider the Conversation

Jack Has a Plan – MAiD

How to Die in Oregon – MAiD

Death Positive and Green Funeral Homes, Burial Grounds and Resources:

The Green Burial Council

Minnesota Threshold Network – lots of resources!

Sacred Crossings (Funeral home in Los Angeles area)

Herland Forest (Natural Burial Forest in Wahkiacus, Washington)

Colorado Burial Preserve (Natural burial preserve in Florence, CO)

Natural Organic Reduction (NOR) aka human composting as of 2024 is legal in 12 States: WA, CO, OR, CA, NY, VT, NV, MN, MD, AZ, DE, & ME – legalization tracker here) We are very proud to have passed the MN NOR bill in the 2024 legislature!

Recompose (Natural Organic Reduction/human composting funeral home in Seattle, WA)

The Natural Funeral (Lafayette, CO NOR/human composting, and other green burial options, funeral home)

Return Home (Auburn, WA NOR/human composting funeral home)

Earth (Auburn, WA NOR/human composting funeral home)

Home Funeral Resources

Home Funeral Alliance

Deathwives Home Funeral Course

Aquamation Resources

Bradshaw Funeral Home (Stillwater, MN)

VSED (Voluntary Stopping Eating and Drinking):

VSED Reading List

VSED Resources Northwest

End of Life Concierge Services

Full-Circle After Care

Steps After Life

Meditation:

Virtual Living Funeral Ceremony

Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD):

Film: How to Die in Oregon

Podcast: “Good Death” from Terrible, Thanks for Asking regarding Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD)

Film: Jack Has a Plan

Podcast: Best Life Best Death: Patient-Centered Care and Medical Assistance in Dying – Dr Stefanie Green

Final Exit Network:

Final Exit Network

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)

Being With Grief

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

To Be a Field of Poppies by Lisa Wells

Swedish Death Cleaning:

Swedish Death Cleaning on ITV

Books:

Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them): A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying by Sallie Tisdale

That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour by Sunita Puri

The Art of Dying Well: A Practical Guide to a Good End of Life by Katy Butler

Knocking on Heaven’s Door by Katy Butler

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

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

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

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

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 Dugdale

Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying By Mirabai Bush and Ram Dass

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi and Abraham Verghese

Hello, Goodbye: 75 Rituals for times of loss, celebration and change by Day Schildkret

Children’s Books:

Cry, Heart, But Never Break by Glenn Ringtved

Huffington Post list of 25 Books that explain Death and Grief to Kids