My Writing

I like the ritual of gently washing the human body after death. Jewish tradition calls this ritualized body washing and purification...

Death Literacy. This newish term keeps coming up. For me, it means we can talk about death, we can plan for our death, we can talk about...

Talking about death a lot makes me less afraid of dying. I have been leading Death Cafes online for the Elisabeth Kubler Ross Foundation...

Annika would not believe it but her TikTok videos have exceeded 40 million unique views! She doesn't know because she died.  Annika was...

I got so mad when Hospice called me a few months after my mom died for a 'grief check-in' call. My mom died 7 years ago and the call came...

The term "compressed morbidity" doesn't sound nearly as wonderful as it is. In Eastern philosophy, it refers to someone being in tune...

I don't want to die with regrets. Like you, I have no idea when death will come for me. But, I can say unequivocally, I am motivated by...

The crazy thing I want for every U.S. resident: When you register to vote or get your driver's license or register for college or the...

People equate hospice with death. If you think of the word 'Death,' you are not alone. It never ceases to amaze me that in the 50 years...

I want to gently, kindly, lovingly say 'Yes'! If your person has the time to prepare and plan and accept dying and you get to hear their...

That is my mom in the big silver urn, my sister in the blue swirly bottle and my father in the gold and blue box. Let me correct myself,...

When my mom died 5 years ago exactly, at the age of 94, she gave me one last surprise gift. It was liberation from the agonizing,...

As an End of Life Doula and Hospice Volunteer, I know of so many people who have experienced the loss of a loved one in the most dramatic...

I have often inadvertently pissed people off by speaking openly and honestly, violating the constraints and strictures of the majority...

Photo by Public Domain Pictures by Pixaby I saw my hospice patient each Thursday for 13 months. The first time was day after she turned...

This is not a story about my hospice patient with advanced Parkinson’s and how over the year I have seen her every Thursday as a...

My mom got her wish for death on April 25th, 2017, exactly 5 years and 2 hours after her eldest daughter, one of my two sisters, died....