A Path Home

Today Sarah shares her conversation with De Clarke following the sudden death of her beloved husband, Jonathan Knowles. De was faced with many challenges that she had to navigate in order to provide the natural burial Jon wanted in the midst of the shock and grief of his unexpected death. Support the show

Moreka Jolar shares the story of attending to her mother at the end of her life. Her mum, Maru, lived an unconventional life so it was no surprise that she chose to die in a rather unconventional way as well. Her spirit of generosity shone throughout her life and included helping her 8 year old granddaughter come to terms with her death.Support the show

Today, Sarah talks with India West, a farmer, willow casket weaver and natural burial advocate in Indiana. India made the funeral arrangements for their mother after her sudden death, followed by caring for their father at the end of his life and honoring his wishes to be buried in the conservation burial ground he was instrumental in developing in the state of Indiana. See the links below to view (and order!) India's handcrafted willow caskets and the Warren Prairie Sanctuary.https://www.riverstyxwillow.com/https://www.instagram.com/riverstyxwillowfarm/https://www.warrenprairiesanctuary.org/Support the show

On today’s episode I have a conversation with Noba Anderson, a resident of Cortes Island in British Columbia, Canada. Cortes has an active Community Death Care group that has provided death care education, helped greatly with navigating the paper trail that accompanies a death, and generally supports people to know their rights regarding home based funeral care. Noba shares her experience of tending to her dear friends, Kristen Scholfield-Sweet and John Shook, as they died in their home and the natural burial that followed. Support the show

Updated audio as of 12/10/2025. On this episode we hear from death and grief doula, Joslyn Roadstrom, who shares with us the many ways she meets her grief five years after her son, Israel, died in the hospital just a couple of months shy of his second birthday. You can find and follow Joslyn on Instagram at sacredroaddoula. She posts helpful videos and offers one on one grief support. https://www.instagram.com/sacredroaddoula/?hl=enSupport the show

On today’s episode I have a conversation with Naomi Hayter on Cortes Island in Western Canada. The community-led deathcare group on the island provided the circle of support and logistical guidance that Naomi needed to get through the death of her life-partner, Doug, not long after she had tended to her mother’s dying and death in a faraway city. Naomi shares how the after-death care and the green burial they provided for Doug was a real eye-opener and a transformative experience for her. Support the show

On this episode, Sarah Crews has a conversation with Isabel Knight and Winx Gall as they reflect on the work they did while serving on the Board of Directors for the National Home Funeral Alliance. You can download the Home Funeral Guidebook, that they were instrumental in creating, at the link below.https://www.homefuneralalliance.org/Support the show

On this first episode of Season 6, Sarah talks with Csenge Kolozsvari who, along with her four year old daughter, traveled from Montreal to her home village in Hungary to accompany her father on his dying journey. She shares the intimate and personal details of being present to her father's needs during his final weeks. Csenge is an artist and bodyworker. You can reach her here:https://www.thebreathing-room.com/en/homeAnd she mentions this book, Die Wise, by Stephen Jenkinson in our conversation:https://orphanwisdom.com/shop/die-wise/Support the show

On this episode Sarah has a conversation with Ed Nelson and his son, Erick Nelson. In February of 2023 Ed's brother Brent died from throat cancer. He had mentioned to Ed that he wanted a natural burial. Erick arrived in Kansas a couple of days before the scheduled burial and participated in an anointing ceremony with his dad, honoring his uncle. Support the show

Naomi Worob and Tina Zuccarello share the story of bringing Jeff to the ashram he loved to spend his final weeks surrounded by people who loved him and bury him on the property. Support the show

On today's episode, Carolyn Dehnbostel describes the home funeral she and her family provided for her mom, Betty, at their cabin in Minnesota, followed by a natural burial on their own land and the logistics involved in getting it all arranged.Support the show

Today, Sarah has a conversation with Leslie Stager about the after-death care she and a small circle of friends provided to her mom at her home in Maine. Leslie's mom died unexpectedly which made keeping her home a little challenging.Support the show

Today, Sarah speaks with Krista Marshall in upstate NY who shares  the story of the after-death care provided to an elder in the community she lived in for a time in Vermont. Grandfather Hank was beloved in the area for his presence and helpful spirit from his work with teens to his active pursuit of making life better for the people in his ever-widening circles.https://www.nancyjewelpoer.com/product-page/living-into-dyinghttps://malidoma.com/main/Support the show

For today's bonus Winter Solstice episode, Sarah has a conversation about grief with Colorado-based Deathwives, Lauren Carroll and Erin Merelli.  To listen to Erin's Tedx Talk click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryIS6RdU5KI  And to peruse all the amazing courses and content the Deathwives have to offer check out their website here: https://deathwives.org/Support the show

On today's episode Sarah has a conversation with three members of the Ottawa Death Care Collective in Ottawa, Canada. Kelly Butler, Heather Martel and Deb Charbonneau share with us the personal paths that led each of them to engage in the important work of community death care. You'll find their website here:https://communitydeathcareottawa.com/And read about the wind phone here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_phoneSupport the show

Glenda Villegas is the funeral director at Thresholds, Home and Family-Directed Funerals, LLC.  based in San Diego, California. Glenda represents a growing group of progressive funeral professionals who recognize the value of supporting families who choose to do most of the after-death care themselves.https://thresholdsfamilydirectedfunerals.com/Support the show

Sarah has a conversation with Anne Archbold and Paul Sommers about the plan Paul's mom, Sally made to donate her body to the medical school at the University of Minnesota after she died. Sally also requested a natural burial. Everything aligned in order for Sally to accomplish both.Support the show

On this first episode of Season 5, Sarah sits down with three brothers, Zach, Kevin and Sky Weaver, who share the story of preparing their dad, Phil for a natural burial.To check out the music of The Gravy Ladles here is the link to their YouTube page. https://www.youtube.com/@thegravyladlesmusicYou can also find them on Facebook and InstagramSupport the show

On today's episode Sarah has a conversation with David Schinsing about his wife Sue's experience with ovarian cancer and the home funeral they planned together. Sue was a nurse, a birth doula and home-schooled their children.  Support the show

Today I have a conversation with Lauren Sample about the home funeral and natural burial her family held for her daughter Nora, nicknamed "Bird," and the many final acts of love provided to Bird in her last hours of living and following her death.Support the show

On today's episode I have a conversation with Dr. Annetta Mallon, founder of Gentle Death Education and Planning, in Tasmania. We talk about her work in the community and the state of green burial in Australia. For more information on Annetta's work, click here:  https://www.gdep.com.au/Support the show

On this episode I talk with Margaret Henderson and Robin Cottrell in Ukiah, California. The two serve as death midwives and home funeral guides in their community.  They are also singers and members of a Threshold Choir who bring songs to the bedside of terminally ill people. For more information on Threshold Choir see here: https://thresholdchoir.org/Margy mentions Redwing Keyssar's book called Last Acts of Kindness. Find it here: https://redwingkeyssar.com/book/Support the show

A call to listeners to reach out and share their stories, followed by Sarah's original song, Precious Bird, in honor of her friend Puja.Precious Bird is Sarah Crews on guitar and vocals.Tim Crews on mandolin.Support the show

On this episode, Sarah has a conversation with sisters, Lucinda, Maud and Cecily in Ashland, Oregon. The three of them share the story of creating a home funeral for their mother, former Civil Rights attorney turned Oracle, Ann Macrory. Watch the video of Ann's home funeral here: https://vimeo.com/399209253Forest Conservation Burial Ground: https://theforestconservationburial.org/Support the show

Today I have a conversation with Donna Vidam about a home funeral she created for her mom, Janet. In 2020, Janet was hospitalized when it became clear that she wouldn't recover, so Donna made the choice to bring her home to die there. Following Janet's death, Donna with the help of Janet's best friends, cared for her body at home and invited friends and neighbors over to pay their respects.Support the show

Today I have a conversation about grief with Sarah Hines. Based in Canada, Sarah has founded The Lodge Project where she and her team, coach the leadership of organizations and corporations to respond to grief compassionately and include grief support and awareness in the culture of their companies. Sarah acknowledges that a well lived life must include grief. https://www.thelodgeproject.com/Support the show

On this episode Sarah has a conversation with Walt Patrick, the steward of Herland Forest in Washington State, a natural burial ground and licensed human composting facility, (also called natural organic reduction) and Elizabeth Fournier, a progressive funeral director and author of the The Green Burial Guidebook, who often works with Walt. Today they share with us what a “laying in” ceremony for a natural organic reduction entails at Herland Forest. “Laying in” is the first part of the process, literally placing the body in the composting cradle.https://www.herlandforest.org/Support the show

Today I have a conversation with Karry Sawatsky. She shares with us the story of her grandfather’s death and how she supported her grandmother throughout the process. Karry is a full-time death doula and founder of Modern Deathcare. She works with adult-children and spouses supporting a dear one with a life limiting illness and is launching The Life and Death Academy death doula training program in January.  Karry’s own challenging experiences with the death of several loved ones called her to this vocation.  Here is the link to Karry's website:  http://moderndeathcare.com and follow her on Instagram @moderndeathcare Support the show

Today I have a conversation with Karen van Vuuren, founder of the educational non-profit, Natural Transitions, a founding member of the NHFA, and co-founder of The Natural Funeral in Lafayette, Colorado. Karen has been an integral part of the natural death care movement for more than 20 years. She is also an award-winning documentary film maker of two movies, Dying Wish and Go In Peace (links below). In this episode we discuss the unexpected way that she got started on this path.https://www.thenaturalfuneral.com/https://www.dyingwishmedia.com/https://goinpeacefilm.org/Support the show

Today I have a conversation with Darshan Stevens on Cortes Island in British Columbia. Darshan and her mother, Jennifer, lived on the same property when Jen was diagnosed with cancer. For two years they navigated her cancer treatments. In the end, Jen chose MAID, Medical Assistance In Dying. Darshan shares the story of her mum's dying, death, the after-death care and the natural burial that they and the family co-created along with the help of the community-led death care collective on the island.https://cortescurrents.ca/darshan-stevens-her-mothers-life-death-and-afterward/Support the show

In early December, 2021, Adrienne Parker discovered that her oldest child, Brandyn, had died in his car.  Brandyn's life had been caught in a cycle of mental illness and incarceration, resulting in his being homeless and living in his car.  His body needed to be examined by the coroner before Adrienne, with the help of her friend, Rebecca, had him brought back home to be cared for there by his loving family.Support the show

Today we hear from two members of the Arizona Community Death Care collective, Dani LaVoire and Jade Sherer. This is another episode that will be of interest to those listeners who are either already engaged in or just beginning to form community groups. If you have any questions for the AZ collective you can reach out to them here: https://www.azcommunitydeathcare.org/missionThe website for White Eagle Memorial Preserve is here:https://www.naturalburialground.org/And to learn more about Jade's offerings check out these beautiful pages:https://www.itsournature.net/https://www.patreon.com/jadeshererhttp://insig.ht/jadeshererSupport the show

Sarah is joined by Angela and Michael Franklin, founders of Crossroads Community DeathCare, for an in-depth conversation on how engaging in community led death care has the potential to shift the culture around dying and death. To find out more about what they offer, find them on Facebook:https://m.facebook.com/crossroadsdeathcare and Instagram:https://instagram.com/crossroads_deathcareSupport the show

Tim Johnson shares the story of choosing to care for his dad at home, and his journey getting there through the stories of two other significant deaths in the family. To see Debbie Wagner's art work click here: http://www.debbiewagnerart.com/Support the show

On this episode Sarah has a conversation with three members of a community led death care group in Canada. They share the touching story of bringing Gypsy's son, Andrew, home to the island to care for his body and lay him to rest in a natural burial.Here is the link to the article: https://news.yahoo.com/grassy-green-future-composting-human-095323526.htmlAnd the Community-Led Death Care group:https://communityleddeathcare.ca/Support the show

Sarah has a conversation with North Carolina based singer songwriter Laurelyn Dossett who shares the story of the burial she and her brothers provided for their mother in a hand crafted wooden box in Laurelyn’s garden.Here's the link to her piece,  A Family Project, in The Bitter Southerner:https://bittersoutherner.com/feature/2022/a-family-projectFind out more about Laurelyn and her music here:https://www.laurelyndossett.com/ Support the show

Today I have a conversation with Kelly Parker. Kelly’s husband Rick Robson died in late January and was buried at Heart Land Prairie Cemetery earlier this month. Rick had determined that he wanted to have a green burial and sent an email to me through the cemetery website inquiring about building his own casket. Over the course of the next few months, Kelly and Rick, educated themselves about the logistics and legalities of home funeral practice. They ultimately decided that not only would he have a natural burial in a homemade casket, but that Kelly, along with their family and the support of their community of friends and hospice would make all the arrangements, care for his body themselves, and keep him in the home he designed and built with Kelly until it was time for the burial.Support the show

Today I have a conversation with four members of the Threshold Care Circle in Viroqua, Wisconsin; Charlene Elderkin, Susan Nesbitt, Kelly Whited-Ford, and Tracy Mangold. Threshold Care Circle began as a community death care collective in 2006. On this episode, we’ll hear how they got started and eventually evolved into an educational 501c3 providing workshops, death care support and advocating for green burial.https://www.thresholdcarecircle.org/Support the show

Emily Miller shares her experience of opening Colorado's first dedicated green burial ground, Colorado Burial Preserve. https://www.coloradoburialpreserve.com/https://www.greenburialcouncil.org/so_you_want_to_start_a_green_burial_cemetery.htmlSupport the show

Today Sarah is joined by Deborah Thornton and Angela Franklin. Deborah's daughter, Scout, died in a car accident in the summer of 2019. With the help of Angela and her husband, Michael, both death midwives and home funeral guides in the rural Oregon town where Scout was living with her partner, Travis, and their dog, Mowgli, Scout was given a natural burial on the farm she called home.watch Scout's performance at the 2019 Kate Wolf Festival here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYpIV7By9BE contact Angela here:https://www.facebook.com/crossroadsdeathcare/Scout's mother, Deborah Thornton, is a transformational life coach based in Maryland. The story of her emotional journey following Scout's death will appear in a forthcoming collaborative book on cultivating emotional resiliency.Learn more about Deborah's work here:https://prismatic-coaching.com/Support the show

Today Sarah reposts an episode from our first season in 2019 called Grief and the Holidays with a couple of changes. Several people have asked about the song at the beginning and end of A Path Home. The title of the song is The Next Step.  At the end of this episode you will hear a rough recording, made outdoors on a cellphone,  of the whole song. Here are the links for the resources used in the original episode.https://www.refugeingrief.com/https://johnpavlovitz.com/2015/12/18/blue-christmas-what-to-do-when-the-holidays-hurt/https://www.centerforloss.com/https://www.griefhealingblog.com/Support the show

On this episode we hear from Jonel Kiesau, who shares the tender, sorrowful, yet somehow joyful experience of caring for her beloved husband, Andy, at home along with their two young daughters, family and community. Andy was buried in a hand-crafted wooden box on their farm in Wisconsin. You can find Jonel's essay, Fifty Acres, in the book Contours: A Literary Landscape here: https://www.driftlesswritingcenter.org/product-page/contours-a-literary-landscapeAnd read more about their story along with photographs on her blogspot: https://possuminthecompost.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-beauty-of-loss.htmlSupport the show

Today Susan Mackey shares her creative solution for providing after-death care when a home funeral wasn't possible, home funeral care just not in a home. To learn more about Sue and her work see her website here: https://www.outoftheboxfuneralplanning.com/Susan serves on the board of the Funeral Consumers Society of Colorado, an affiliate of the national Funeral Consumers Alliance. Here are those links: https://www.funeralconsumercolorado.org/https://funerals.org/Support the show

On today's episode I speak with three members of the Pomerantz family, sisters Jennifer and Katie and their father, Sanford. It was almost exactly one year ago, November 13th, 2020,  that I met the family at Heart Land Prairie Cemetery where they buried Francine, the girls' mother and Sanford's wife of 51 years. To find out more about HLPC, check out the website:http://www.heartlandprairiecemetery.org/Support the show

Bonni Goldberg shares the story of reckoning a complicated relationship with her mother by caring for her at the end of her life and after her death. The women in Bonni's family performed the taharah, a final act of great kindness in Jewish tradition, for Bonni's mother when she died. What followed was an Aquamation, also known as "water-cremation."Bonni is an author of several books for young people and adults. To see her titles and read about her work visit her webpage at: https://bonnigoldberg.com/She has written several essays on death under the pen name Batya, that you can read at the following links: https://medium.com/take-too/the-real-reason-i-wash-the-dead-63b0269edee8https://psiloveyou.xyz/searching-through-my-fathers-ashes-70d5dad2f453https://medium.com/take-too/meet-me-at-the-death-cafe-90280eb5b4c3More on Aquamation here: https://aquamationinfo.com/Support the show

Writer Maggie Jones shares with Sarah the after death care her family provided for both of her parents some 18 years apart. The experience of remaining with her father's body for a full night after his death, stayed with her and ultimately inspired her to write a story for the New York Times Magazine called The Movement to Bring Death Closer. To learn more about Maggie's work visit her website, here: https://bymaggiejones.com/You can find the NYT story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/19/magazine/home-funeral.htmlAnd listen to the piece on The Daily, Sunday Read edition here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/20/podcasts/the-daily/home-funeral-guides.htmlSupport the show

Diana Lindsay and her friend, home funeral guide Lucinda Herring, share the story of Kelly Lindsay's dying process and the family who gathered to accompany him on his final journey with brain cancer. Here are the links to Healing Circles, the support organization founded by Diana and Kelly: https://healingcircleslangley.org/ and https://healingcirclesglobal.org/#topI mention in the introduction just a few of the things Healing Circles offers, but there is SO much more. It is really worth taking a look!If you're interested in reading Diana and Kelly's book on caregiving and grappling with cancer or any other life-limiting illness you can find it on Amazon. Amazon Smiles will donate to the National Home Funeral Alliance if you select it when ordering. https://smile.amazon.com/Something-More-Than-Hope-Everything/dp/099124270X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=something+more+than+hope+diana&qid=1623966311&s=books&sr=1-1Support the show

Lauren Carroll is a funeral director based in Colorado Springs. After finding out about home-based, family-centered after death care, Lauren devoted her practice to helping families create home funerals. On this episode we discuss everything from filing a death certificate to rigor mortis and body care. She is a co-founder of Deathwives, a non-profit death education and advocacy collective. Find out about the courses they offer here: https://deathwives.org/Support the show

Aubrey Brinneman and her friend, home funeral guide Lauren Richwine recall the dying, death, home funeral and natural burial of Aubrey's husband, Tyler. Ty faced his diagnosis with a rare, aggressive cancer by being actively involved in preparing his young family for what was to come. If you are in Indiana and would like some support or have questions regarding holding a home funeral or natural burial, you can contact Lauren through her website: http://deathdonedifferently.com/ The shroud the couple ordered for Ty's natural burial came from Kinkaraco, Green Funeral Products.  https://kinkaraco.com/Support the show

In this episode Ray Mulvey and his daughter Laurie describe the home funeral they arranged for Ray's wife of 58 years, Judy. Ray lives in New Jersey, one of the states that requires hiring a funeral director to oversee certain aspects of the funeral. Laurie is a resident of Pennsylvania and a member of her local chapter of the Funeral Consumers Alliance. To learn more about this important organization see their website here:  https://funerals.org/The movie Laurie mentions watching is the 2003 PBS documentary called, A Family Undertaking.  It is available to order on DVD from Netflix.Support the show