Celebrate and honor the life and death of Jack Heckelman.
As we pass the 15th Anniversary of Jack Heckelman’s Passing, April 24, 2020, Jack’s movie, The Most Exellent Dying of Theodore Jack Heckelman, is now available for free on YouTube.
Celebrate and honor the life and death of Jack Heckelman.
As we pass the 15th Anniversary of Jack Heckelman’s Passing, April 24, 2020, Jack’s movie, The Most Exellent Dying of Theodore Jack Heckelman, is now available for free on YouTube.
In Minnesota, a group of last responders, death educators, and EOLDs in our community created “Loving, Living, and Dying During COVID-19” as a way to share and distribute accurate, compassionate and relevant information. This was designed to be helpful to everyone in Minnesota – families, caregivers, guides. Thanks to the thoughtful team that worked on this so quickly. Please share it as widely as you can.
Link here: Loving, Living, and Dying During COVID-19
We are grateful to Ellen Hufschmidt and Kyoko Katayama, who facilitated last night’s wonderful meeting on facing the holidays after the death of a loved one, for sharing these Ten Tips for Grievers, adapted from the writings of Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D.
The Winter 2016 newsletter of the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Minnesota is now available on their website. To read it, go to the FCA of MN home page.
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From the Rochester Area Chapter of the Minnesota Threshold Network:
All welcome! Free Will Donation
You’ve lived a green life – but did you know it is now possible to carry your environmentally-conscious living into your end of life plans? Green burial is a natural alternative to resource-intensive conventional burial and cremation. Through an informational presentation, video clips of other’s experiences and discussion, we will explore the topic of green burial. Learn the definition, benefits and legalities of green burial, as well as what local resources are available to support your choice to die green
February 16, 2016, 6:30-8:30pm, Dying to be Green, Assisi Heights Spirituality Center, 1001 14th St.NW, Rochester, MN. Definition, benefits, and legalities of green burial, as well as local resources available to support the choice to die green. Presented by the Rochester Area Chapter of the MTN. To register call (507) 280-2195.
Thanks to Deah Kinion, the Rochester Chapter now has a presence on Face Book. It is a public page, so you don’t have to be a member of FB to access it. Please “like” it and then invite all your friends to like it too. Here is the link:
https://www.facebook.com/RochesterChapterMNThresholdNetwork/?fref=ts
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Late Life: A Conversation with Atul Gawande
Episode: Dr. Atul Gawande, author of “Being Mortal,” shares his vision of healthcare that helps people live well to the end.
Upcoming Broadcast Dates:
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The Mary Hanson Show: Special Mini-Series for Black History Month, tpt 2-2, the MN Channel, Mondays at 10AM, 4 PM, 10 PM and 4 AM
March 21 – Preparing for End of Life Healthcare Decisions – Guest: Anne Elizabeth Denny, Consultant, speaker and author of My Voice, My Choice
Dying Green is a 26-minute documentary about natural burial and land conservation, set in the Appalachians. Dr. Billy Campbell’s dream is to conserve one million acres of land, using our own death to create wildlife preserves. Two copies of the DVD are available at Hennepin County Library.
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NEW FAQs about family-led after death care on the blog!
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Rest in Peace: Stories About Death Care is a list of long-form journalism pieces about death and death care, compiled by Emily Perper.
1. From earthporm.com: “Bye-Bye Coffins, These Organic Burial Pods Turn Your Loved Ones Into Trees”
Based in Italy, the Capsula Mundi project created an organic, biodegradable burial pod that literally turns a person’s remains into nutrients for a beautiful tree growing directly up above. Unfortunately, these burial pods are only a concept idea for now.
2. A Soft Goodbye is the beautifully story of how a Canadian home funeral guide helped the author and her family grieve the loss of a cherished relative. “No one called 911 or a funeral home. Instead, Richard’s family rang their death midwife.”
3. “What to Do With Our Bodies After We Die”: The Urban Death Project is developing a new option which may appeal to those who want to minimize environmental harm and give something back to the earth when we die. It is a system designed for urban settings in which human bodies are transformed into a soil-enriching substance. This choice can provide a deeply spiritual element for those who see something sacred in the cycles of life and the processes of decomposition and regeneration.
4. “The Trouble With Advance Directives”: New York Times article exploring the shortcomings of the current method of creating and maintaining advance directives in the US.
5. New video from Ask a Mortician: Everyone’s Favorite Conversation ~ Talking about Death…with your parents. Caitlin Doughty makes it almost fun, with some good questions at about 4 minutes in, to ask yourself first and foremost.
6. And be sure to catch Doughty’sirreverent take on traditional vs. natural/green burial.
The next Minnesota Threshold Network meeting will be Monday, January 13, 7:00 pm, at the home of Linda Bergh, 4315 Xerxes Ave. Minneapolis. 612-927-0894. Funeral Consumer’s Alliance of Minnesota board members will share their recent price survey of 80 Twin Cities Funeral homes and discuss common interests, including asking funeral homes to post prices on their websites. On January 1, 2013, California became the first state to enact this requirement.
Commonweal is a nonprofit center dedicated to healing, learning, the environment, and justice. Founded in 1976 in Bolinas, California, Commonweal conducts programs that contribute to human and ecosystem health—to a safer world for people and for all life. Through the New School, Commonweal is engaging the conversation around death and dying in American culture.
End of Life Conversations Series:
Despite all of the recent attention to death and the process of dying in America, direct and heart-centered conversations about death are still rare—and patients and families frequently have unmet needs. As part of our work at Commonweal, we have listened deeply to people talking about these issues for decades. Our vision for this series is to contribute to a growing conversation about death in America. We’d like to create a public space where questions of death and dying can be explored in safety and without judgment. The following conversations are part of this growing series.
For links to all conversations in this series, see The New School’s website.
I’ve neglected to advise you of a great new website called preparingtodie.com. It has wonderful information for caregivers, on writing your will and much more. Check it out!
Minnesota Threshold Network Meeting Minutes of April 30, 2012
Attendees: Linda Bergh, Becky Bohan, Marianne Dietzel, Eli Effinger-Weintraub, Heather Halen, Kathy Huset, Kyoko Katayama, Nancy Manahan, Marijane Tessman, Julie Tinberg
Reports
April 22: Heather and Julie presented at Macalester-Plymouth United Church. An excellent nine-minute edited clip of their talk is available on YouTube.
April 28: MTN members visited Mound Cemetery of Brooklyn Center , Minnesota’s first cemetery to be certified by the Green Burial Council! Mound Cemetery received one leaf, which signifies a hybrid burial ground, where conventional and green gravesites may be side by side.; Two leaves means a natural burial ground; three leaves, a conservation burial ground. (For more information on green cemeteries nationally, see www.greenburialcouncil.org/.)
Linda reported on the advanced directive class. Attendees are writing letters about their values and ethics to their families and designated agents. At least as important as completing the advanced directive paperwork are conversations with family members and personal agents so everyone involved is clear about our wishes if we cannot speak for ourselves. Heather mentioned that advanced directives should be in place throughout our lives, since accidents and life-threatening illnesses can occur at any age.
Events
The annual MTN Public Information Forum will be at Washburn Library on Tuesday, June 12 at 6 pm. There will be two new speakers this year. Please notify your friends, libraries, churches, senior centers, neighborhood newsletters, co-ops, and hospices with whom you have connections, and post this event on Facebook and Twitter. Here’s a 63-word paragraph with the essential information; feel free to modify/condense it:
Family-Directed After-Death Care and Green Burials
When a family member dies, you don’t have to call a funeral director. Simple, legal, inexpensive, eco-friendly, deeply meaningful alternatives exist. Free public information forum on caring for our own deceased; common myths & fears; burial, cremation, & hydrolysis; and working with a supportive funeral director. Tuesday June 12, 6:30-7:45pm. Washburn Public Library, 5244 Lyndale Ave. S. Mpls. For more information, visit mnthresholdnetwork.wordpress.com.
The National Home Funeral Alliance 3rd annual conference is at Techny Towers Conference & Retreat Center on Chicago’s North Shore October 12-14, 2012. Cost for the conference, lodging, and all meals is $390 members/$415 non-members. Heather may contact them about doing a break-out session on challenges that can come up during after-death care. For more information or to register, visit the NHFA website.
Other
Linda will order three sets of Techni Ice to have available to members for keeping a body cool. Marianne and Heather also will have Techni Ice in the freezer, ready for use.
Nancy mentioned a 1998 ground-breaking book about after-death care , Coming to Rest by Julie Wiskind and Richard Spiegel. She is in touch with Richard and hopes to obtain copies of the book, which is out of print, for the Minnesota Threshold Network.
Kyoko recommended Krista Tippett’s April 26 interview with Ira Byock, author of the classic Dying Well, about his 2012 book, The Best Care Possible: A Physician’s Quest to Transform Care Through the End of Life. You hear Dr. Byock advocate for an understanding of death as a developmental stage like adolescence or mid-life at http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2012/contemplating-mortality/
Discussion
We began an exploration of the ethical questions involved in advanced directives, after-death care, and the home funeral movement. Heather reported that in hospice communities, the emphasis on a dying person’s having as much control as possible over the dying process is evolving to include the recognition that many people are involved in a death and have to live with the consequences of the dying person’s decisions.
We raised several questions to consider at our next meeting, including these:
Next Meeting
The next MTN meeting (after the June 12 forum) will be September 17, 2012, at 7 pm at Julie Tinberg’s house. Details will be emailed and posted on the MTN site.