The Landscape from Diagnosis to Death
My friend Marcy Westerling didn’t hide the fact of her cancer or of her impending death. Read more about her insistence that we join her in looking her illness and her death squarely in the eye.
How do we support the dying in our midst? What supports might we want for our dying time?
Join me March 26th for the fourth of my current Befriending Mortality series. We’ll look at the landscape from diagnosis to death: palliative care and hospice, medical aid in dying (MAID) and voluntary stopping eating and drinking (VSED), assembling a care team and the role of an end-of-life doula, and the deaths that don’t go “according to plan.”
You are welcome to participate even if you haven’t attended the first three sessions in the series. You’ll also have access to a no-cost, Death Café-style conversation for class participants to share with each other what’s up regarding befriending mortality. Dates and Zoom link will be shared with those registered for Befriending Mortality classes.
WHAT: The Dying Time
WHEN: Tuesday March 26th, 2023 at 5pm pacific
WHERE: Via Zoom
HOW MUCH: Sliding scale $25 – $45/ class
LEARN MORE: About the full Befriending Mortality Series with options for individuals and groups.
Pre-registration for each class is required via Eventbrite:
From Death to Disposition: April 9 Zoom Class
Last Updated: March 28, 2024 by hollyjpruett Leave a Comment
From Death to Disposition
Historically, care for the dead was handled by family and community – and legally, it is still our right to do so. But for many, our ancestral ways of caring for each other after death have been forgotten.
Join me April 9th for the fifth of my current Befriending Mortality series. We’ll review the aspects of deathcare now outsourced to professionals – bathing, dressing, and transporting the body; sourcing a casket, shroud or urn; handling the paperwork – and consider the benefits of more hands-on engagement. You are welcome to participate even if you haven’t attended the first four sessions in the series.
BONUS SESSION! DEATH CAFE: Befriending Mortality participants are also welcome to attend a no-cost, on-line Death Café to share with each other what’s on their minds regarding befriending mortality.
WHAT: From Death to Disposition
WHEN: Tuesday April 9, 2024 from 5pm to 6:15pm pacific
WHERE: Via Zoom
HOW MUCH: Sliding scale $20 – $45/ class
CONTACT ME to register.
LEARN MORE: About the full Befriending Mortality Series with options for individuals and groups.
The Dying Time: March 26 Zoom Class
Last Updated: March 15, 2024 by hollyjpruett Leave a Comment
The Landscape from Diagnosis to Death
My friend Marcy Westerling didn’t hide the fact of her cancer or of her impending death. Read more about her insistence that we join her in looking her illness and her death squarely in the eye.
How do we support the dying in our midst? What supports might we want for our dying time?
Join me March 26th for the fourth of my current Befriending Mortality series. We’ll look at the landscape from diagnosis to death: palliative care and hospice, medical aid in dying (MAID) and voluntary stopping eating and drinking (VSED), assembling a care team and the role of an end-of-life doula, and the deaths that don’t go “according to plan.”
You are welcome to participate even if you haven’t attended the first three sessions in the series. You’ll also have access to a no-cost, Death Café-style conversation for class participants to share with each other what’s up regarding befriending mortality. Dates and Zoom link will be shared with those registered for Befriending Mortality classes.
WHAT: The Dying Time
WHEN: Tuesday March 26th, 2023 at 5pm pacific
WHERE: Via Zoom
HOW MUCH: Sliding scale $25 – $45/ class
LEARN MORE: About the full Befriending Mortality Series with options for individuals and groups.
Pre-registration for each class is required via Eventbrite:
Remembering Together: March 12 Zoom Class
Last Updated: March 1, 2024 by hollyjpruett Leave a Comment
Ceremonies of Bereavement & Remembrance
Ten years after my father’s death I wrote the eulogy he’d never had.
How do we honor, and strengthen, the continuity of relationships across the veil of life and death?
Join me March 12th for the third session in my current Befriending Mortality series. We’ll explore inspiring examples of creative ceremonies of bereavement and remembrance, including:
BONUS MONTHLY DEATH CAFE: I host an optional, no-cost, open-format conversation for class registrants to share with each other what’s up regarding befriending mortality. Dates and access to zoom link will be shared during class sessions.
Read MoreFinal Disposition: Feb 27 Zoom Class
Last Updated: March 28, 2024 by hollyjpruett Leave a Comment
Final Disposition
Meet my friend Mark, seen here shrouded in the back of the ‘62 Suburban that served as his hearse. Mark died in his sleep five months shy of turning 50. He’d often told his beloved wife Phyllis, “If I die, pack me on ice and take me to our family’s pioneer cemetery.” As Phyllis says, “It turns out it’s more complicated than that.” But with the help of friends, she made it happen.
Learning death, before our own — what will happen to your body once you die? How will your death certificate be filled out when it comes to your final disposition?
Join me February 27th for the second of my current Befriending Mortality sessions. We’ll consider the full range of final disposition options including:
BONUS MONTHLY DEATH CAFE: I host an optional, no-cost, open-format conversation for class registrants to share with each other what’s up regarding befriending mortality. Dates and access to zoom link will be shared during class sessions.
Read MoreTEDxPortland’s Salon on Mortality
Last Updated: February 2, 2024 by hollyjpruett Leave a Comment
“Courage emerges from Love.” ~ Priscilla Bernard Wieden
Last week Amber and I entered a temple of creativity made holy on that night by courage, love, and honest talk about mortality.
Five hundred souls came together in Wieden+Kennedy’s auditorium for a TEDxPortland Salon, their first-ever organized around a theme. Jumping into the deep end, the theme was Mortality.
Host David Rae expertly cradled the evening with introductions that were concise, precise, and full of heart. The night was possible, he said, because Priscilla Bernard Wieden had said Yes, let’s do this. She would speak publicly for the first time about the death of her husband Dan Wieden 16 months earlier.
Read MoreThe Death Talk Project
From 2016–2019 the Death Talk Project organized workshops, rituals, Death Cafés, a monthly movie night, and other events. This legacy site documents our approach to useful, honest conversation about how we die, how we mourn, and how we care for and remember our dead.
Non-Commercial Deathcare Info
Check out Oregon Funeral Resources & Education and The Funeral Partnership for other states.
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