Removing Outmoded Restrictions on Home Funerals

At the October 26th meeting of the Minnesota Threshold Network, we spent most of our time strategizing on how to improve Minnesota state laws governing home funerals.

Our major concern is that Minnesota is the only state in the nation that requires  embalming for public viewing [149A.91 Subd. 3]. This means that families cannot legally hold a vigil for a deceased loved one (without embalming) in their own home with anyone other than immediate family members present. There is no scientific basis for such a requirement, and this statue should be removed to give families more choices at the end of life.

 Other concerns:

 1. SF 802 puts new limits on who may care for the dead, hampering a family’s choices. Now, only the person with the right to control disposition may transport a body, for example, not another family member, church committee, or unpaid designee. [149A.01 Subd. 3 (c)]

 2. MN law maintains a provision for hospitals and other institutions to refuse to release a body directly to a family that might wish to care for their own dead, requiring the use of a funeral director instead. [149A.01 Subd. 3 (e)]

 3. MN law now bans family members from the preparation room in a funeral home. [149A.91 Subd. 2]

The home funeral/green burial movement is gaining momentum nationally, as evidenced by feature stories in the March 2009 issue of Smithsonian magazine and in the October 2009 AAPR Bulletin. A July 2009 front page story in the New York Times (and in the Star Tribune) on home funerals quotes Minnesota Threshold Network member Nancy Manahan and mentions Living Consciously, Dying Gracefully.  She also was featured in a WCCO TV News story on green burials last fall.  There is no reason for a state as progressive as Minnesota to be so far behind the curve and have such outdated and unnecessary regulations.

The group drew up preliminary plans to identify friendly legislators and to set up meetings with them.

We did not set a date for the next meeting. When we do so, it will be posted here as well as sent out to all members via email.

We welcome anyone who has the time and energy to help change these unnecessarily strict laws!

Sept. 15, 2009 Meeting Minutes

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.

“Departures”/Next Threshold Meeting

“Departures,” the 2009 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film, is an inspiring glimpse into Japan’s cultural heritage of caring for a body after death.  When a young cellist loses his Tokyo orchestra job, he and his wife move back to his hometown. He answers a classified ad entitled “Departures,” thinking it’s a travel agency only to discover that the job involves washing and casketing bodies. Daigo overcomes his initial horror and comes to love the reverential ceremonies, which can be transformational for the families involved  .  .  .  and eventually for him and his wife.

“Departures” beautifully depicts an approach to death that could teach our culture much.  It is midway between conventional funeral practices and caring for our own at home.  Although a professional washes and dresses the body, the ritual happens in the deceased person’s home with the family surrounding their loved one. There is no embalming. Shocking, funny, and profoundly moving things happen during this process.

Anyone interested in threshold work, spiritual openings, interpersonal transformations, or just exquisite filmmaking will enjoy “Departures.” It is currently playing at the Edina Landmark Theatre at 50^th and France in Minneapolis.  To see a trailer, click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaFRCLAYEF0

Mark your calendars: the next MN Threshold meeting is September 15, 7pm at Linda Bergh’s home, 4315 Xerxes Ave. S, Mpls.  Linda’s phone:  612.927.0894.

Nancy Manahan, co-author of Living Consciously, Dying Gracefully: A Journey with Cancer and Beyond

Public Forum on June 4, 2009

June 4, 6:30-8 pm–Public Forum–an informational meeting about  caring for a body at home, holding a vigil, legal issues involved with family-directed funerals, and green burials.

To be held at Washburn Public Library, 5244 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55419 (612.630.6500)

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Upcoming Movie Screening

The Most Excellent Dying of Theodore Jack Heckelman

A documentary of courageous and conscious dying, community, and hope 
Produced by Nancy Jewel Poer (Jack’s sister)

When
Wednesday, June 10, 7 – 9 pm and Friday, June 12,  7 – 9 pm

The filmmaker will attend both showings and be available for questions.
Where

Linda Bergh (Jack’s widow) is hosting the screening at her home
4315 Xerxes Avenue South, Mpls. MN 55410-1463

 612.927.0894
Open to public–All are welcome

Cost

A $5 donation is suggested to help defray costs of making the film

About Jack Heckelman
Jack was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in August 2004 and died at home April 24, 2005.  Jack faced his death with courage, openness, and transparency.

Jack encouraged  his sister’s documenting all parts of the process, before and after death. Jack wanted this film to be his legacy of hope and encouragement for others and empower people with choices for their own dying they may not have known they have.

About the Filmmaker

Nancy Jewel Poer is a nationally known death midwife, featured in the PBS  documentary A Family Undertaking. She is the author of Living Into Dying. 

Description of the Film

Nancy Jewel Poer describes this film as a heartwarming, full length documentary that chronicles the  courageous journey of a man determined to die consciously and in so doing gave manifold blessings to everyone around him. He resolved to live his brief time left on earth to the fullest, and he called it “my last great adventure.”
Rare and touching footage of his community and family support–of his contracting for his casket to be made by a beloved niece and receiving it just before his death– of friends gathering to tell him farewell  and singing for him in the last hours, and then caring for him at home and honoring him with a three-day vigil.

A warm, natural, open, and accepting mood around the threshold of death is apparent throughout the film. And needless to say, when family takes over, great expenses are not incurred for funerals and 
undertaking!

A Note from Linda Bergh

The hope of this video and our death and dying work is to encourage  individuals and families to find the way to face this threshold in a way that is life-giving and personal. If you can’t come but you are interested in this work, you may contact Linda Bergh at hellolindabergh@gmail.com, visit her website at beholdingthethreshold.org or visit Nancy Jewel Poer’s website at www.nancyjewelpoer.com.

Minnesota Threshold Network

Upcoming Meetings:

May 5, 7 pm – South Minneapolis (email mnthresholdnetwork@gmail.com for directions)

 June 4, 6:30-8 pm–Public Forum–an informational meeting about conscious dying, caring for a body at home, holding a vigil, legal issues involved with family-directed funerals, and green burials.

To be held at Washburn Public Library, 5244 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55419 (612.630.6500)