Befriending Mortality 6-Week Cohort

This fall I’m launching a series of Befriending Mortality Monthly Topic Classes, along with the committed six-session cohort described here. Same content, two different formats – attend the monthly classes of your choice OR read on to consider participating with a small, supportive cohort in a biweekly series of sessions, culminating in the creation of an individualized written death plan.

Befriending Mortality Cohort Fall 2023

Six sessions held on Zoom every other Wednesday at 5pm pacific. Sessions are 90 minutes long and include information, reflection, and sharing within a small, supportive cohort. Self-paced worksheets enable you to continue reflection between sessions and end the series with a written plan, if desired. Enrollment capped at 12.

Inaugural Cohort Dates:
  1. Befriending Mortality – October 4, 2023
  2. Final Disposition – October 18, 2023
  3. Remembering Together – November 1, 2023
  4. The Dying Time – November 15, 2023
  5. From Death to Disposition – November 29, 2023
  6. Making a Death Plan – December 13, 2023

Scroll down for more on content and pricing.

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Befriending Mortality Monthly Topic Classes

New Offering! Monthly “Befriending Mortality” classes via Zoom

WHAT: Attend the monthly classes of your choice. Sessions are 75 minutes long and include information, reflection, and group participation centered on a rotating topic. See topics below.

WHEN: The first Tuesday of each month at 5pm pacific (2nd Tuesday in January):

  • Befriending Mortality – October 3, 2023
  • Final Disposition – November 7, 2023
  • Remembering Together – December 5, 2023
  • The Dying Time – January 9 (2nd Tuesday), 2024
  • From Death to Disposition – February 6, 2024
  • Making a Death Plan – March 5, 2024

Scroll down for topic descriptions.

WHERE: Via Zoom

HOW MUCH: Sliding scale $20 – $45/ class; $120 – $270 for the series

Pre-registration for each monthly class is required via Eventbrite:

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Befriending Mortality Classes & Cohorts

This fall I’m launching a series of monthly Befriending Mortality classes, along with a committed six-session cohort. Same content, two different formats – attend the monthly classes of your choice OR participate with a small, supportive cohort in a biweekly series of sessions, culminating in the creation of an individualized written death plan.

Befriending Mortality Monthly Topic Classes

Monthly sessions on Zoom the first Tuesday of each month at 5pm pacific. Sessions are 75 minutes long and include information, reflection, and group participation centered on a rotating topic. Pre-registration for each monthly class is required.

Click on topic to register for each Monthly Class:
  1. Befriending Mortality – October 3, 2023
  2. Final Disposition – November 7, 2023
  3. Remembering Together – December 5, 2023
  4. The Dying Time – January 9 (2nd Tuesday), 2024
  5. From Death to Disposition – February 6, 2024
  6. Making a Death Plan – March 5, 2024

Scroll down for more on content and pricing.


Befriending Mortality Cohort Fall 2023

Six sessions held on Zoom every other Wednesday at 5pm pacific. Sessions are 90 minutes long and include information, reflection, and sharing within a small, supportive cohort. Self-paced worksheets enable you to continue reflection between sessions and end the series with a written plan, if desired. Enrollment capped at 12.

Read More

Washington Funeral Resources & Education

In Washington, as in most states, no one is required to purchase the services of a funeral director or funeral home when a death occurs. Many don’t know that families and community members may conduct most of the tasks commonly performed by a funeral home. This new non-commercial, pubic interest website aims to fill that information gap.

In addition to detailing death care law in the state, Washington Funeral Resources & Education walks readers through the practical “How Tos” of whichever aspects of after-death care they want to handle, and provides guidance in how consumers can get what they want from professionals they hire or authorities they encounter when a death occurs. The site features stories of how others have cared for their dead and concise, professionally-specific in-service training materials along with resources for use in community education.

The site has already expanded access for Washingtonians wanting to handle death certificate filing without hiring a funeral director. After our team initiated outreach to the Department of Health to highlight the discrepancy between Washingtonians’ rights under the law and the current practice of restricting filing to professionals with EDRS access, DOH published a clarification titled Families Acting as Funeral Directors. (Read more.) The sister website, Oregon Funeral Resources & Education, has spurred changes in hospital body release and family information policies.

It’s been my honor and privilege to work on this project with Jodie Buller at White Eagle Memorial Preserve; Lee Webster, who created the model and then built both the Oregon and Washington sites; the mourners and advocates who shared their stories; and the Washington organizations and individuals who provided research and review. (Read the full honor roll.)

Black Leaders Speak Out on Racism in Death and Deathcare

Six conversations & teachings I was privileged to attend

Another session of this course is scheduled for July 17th, 2020. Click image for info.

In the four weeks since a Minneapolis cop murdered George Floyd for all the world to see, I – along with many other white folks who’ve considered ourselves good anti-racist allies – have been looking more deeply into what I’ve had the privilege of not seeing; what I’ve looked away from; the places my work has fallen short of the values I think of myself as holding dear. Some of this entails digging deeply into my childhood and the ways growing up in a liberal but segregated environment taught me to be both racist and anti-racist. Some of this is devoted to study, reflection, and actions I can take now in response to and in support of the Movement for Black Lives. And some is focused directly on my work in death education and deathcare.

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