The Minnesota Threshold Network met on Sept. 15 at Linda Bergh’s home. There were seven in attendance.
Three members of the Good Grief group joined us. The group developed out of our Washburn Library informational meeting in June. The purpose of this group–4 members in total–is to do end-of-life planning for themselves. They are in the process of researching and filling out documents that make clear their wishes and their values so that family members have guidelines in making decisions.
We discussed the Information meeting of last June. All agreed that it 1) was a success; 2) had good handouts; and 3) was too tight time-wise. We discussed having an annual June information meeting that allows for more time and discussion. These meetings could be followed by a community education class that helps participants do the mental and emotional processing and the paperwork for end-of-life events, similar to what the Good Grief group is doing now.
The October meeting will be 7pm Monday Oct. 26 at Linda Bergh’s home. One idea is to look at various health care/end-of-life directives. People are encouraged to bring whatever directives they have, including advanced funeral directives, so we can compare them. The Commission on Laws on Aging has a detailed list of directives (see Tool Kit).
We read the letter to John Marty that Marianne Dietzel wrote concerning legislation supportive of home funerals. We discussed possible follow-up measures. Linda said that she would ask Kim Pilgrim to call John Marty and ask if he would be willing to meet with 3-4 people to discuss the issues. Becky said that she would forward the letter to Lisa Carlson in Vermont to ask for her advice for the next step. When Nancy & Becky met with Lisa last month, she said that she and Josh Slocum, the executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance (a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting a consumer’s right to choose a meaningful, dignified, affordable funeral www.funerals.org), would be happy to come to Minnesota to testify before a legislative committee.
Mark your calendars: the next MN Threshold meeting is Monday, October 26, 7pm at Linda Bergh’s home, 4315 Xerxes Ave. S, Mpls. Linda’s phone: 612.927.0894.
