Best Life Best Death

Brie Smith - funeral director at Return Home - and I discuss Natural Organic Reduction aka “Terramation.” Get a look behind the sensational headlines of “human composting” and find out more about how this got started, first in WA state and then in CO and OR. How did it begin? What’s the process, science, and end result? How do families participate and what inspires people to choose this form of body disposition?

In Part II of our conversation, Barbara Karnes, RN and I move into talking about some harder questions that come up in the end-of-life arena, including: When someone is reluctant to have a conversation about the end of life, how might we approach the topic? Is calling in hospice a “defeat” in some way? How has hospice changed and evolved in the years since it first began in the U.S.? How do “doulas” fit into the picture? And in not talking about death directly – or perhaps in not experiencing it as directly as the generations before us – what have we lost? What do we have to gain?

Barbara Karnes, RN – hospice pioneer in the US and end-of-life educator extraordinaire – joins me to discuss her background, share her experience, and offer a few pearls of wisdom that we can put into practice today. How can we better understand the process of gradual death, and how can we benefit from “the gift of time” that is a gradual death? How can “gentle education” help our fear go down, so that we can be present for our loved ones?

After the sudden death of his brother, Preston Zeller decided to dive into his grief and his creativity by painting every day for a year. He made a gorgeous, moving, colorful film about the project, called “The Art of Grieving.” Preston and I talk about grief, loss, dignity, joy, family, art history, and the struggles of mourning.

Join me and Maria Fraietta to hear more about how the Nokbox - or Next of Kin box - could save you a lot of time and effort. These 14 folders and corresponding instructions are designed to make critical papers and items easy to find, file, and know what to do with when the time comes to manage the paperwork that surrounds a death. Get organized early in your life and/or use it as a map to find everything when someone has died.

Jamie Sarche, Director of Pre-Planning at Feldman Mortuary, a family-owned funeral business in Denver, CO discusses the advantages of planning a funeral in advance. Get ready to hear why grief rituals matter and to ask yourself, "Do I really want to google funeral homes on the day that I need to find one??" 

Learn about green burial and how licensed funeral director Emily Miller has turned 80 acres of high, pristine prairie lands into a fully natural burial site. What is the Colorado Burial Preserve, and how does it work?

cianna stewart is the creator of the Dying Kindness podcast, "a podcast for people who are going to die someday." Her wry sense of humor and practical advice go right to the heart of the work of Best Life Best Death! How did we meet? What does it mean to 'make your death kinder'? And what wisdom does her life experience have to offer?

As his wife slowly succumbed to a drawn-out illness, businessman, spouse and father Gene Zimmerman found himself writing poetry as a way to make sense of each difficult day during her decline and after her death. We discuss the challenges of this impossible situation, how he found inspiration through writing, and what his experience has to teach others about grief, loss and love. Attached is a review of "Searching For Clarity." https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/searching-for-clarity/

Clutter! Help! What is so-called "Swedish Death Cleaning” and how can these principles help us take charge of the clutter in our homes? Join me for some de-cluttering inspiration based on books, articles and personal experience.