Home Funerals & Death Education
A home funeral is a family- or community-led alternative to conventional funerals, where loved ones take an active role in caring for the deceased. Rooted in ancient traditions, home funerals empower individuals with education and foster a sense of connection and community. They remind us that death is not just a medical event but a deeply human experience that calls for care, collaboration, and ritual.
Madeline brings years of experience as a death educator and has been a teacher and board member at CINDEA (Canadian Integrative Network for Death Education and Alternatives) since 2022. For more information on CINDEA’s online home funeral course, By My Own Heart and Hand, visit the events page or course site here.
Community Deathcare & Resources
Home funerals thrive on the strength of community. It takes a network of people to provide emotional, logistical, and practical support, making community-building an essential part of holistic deathcare. Madeline is one of three practitioners in the Comox Valley Death Doula Collective (CVDDC), providing heart-centered services in dying, death, grief, and loss.
Madeline also helps to facilitate monthly community deathcare gatherings for death-positive folks and offers workshops, educational events, and resources. Whether you're seeking guidance, collaboration, community, or inspiration, she is here to support you. Reach out!
To dive deeper into home funerals, explore the resources below and visit The Order of the Good Death. Connect with a larger network of like-minded individuals through the Community Deathcare Canada Facebook group.
Images from an in-person By My Own Heart and Hand home funeral training at Madeline’s home in 2019.
Graceful Passages
"Very soon after, we rescued Helen and brought her into the dining room, where we arranged her cozily on a massage table draped with beautiful tapestries that Linda had collected over the years from her travels. We also surrounded Helen with all kinds of herbs and flowers from the farm, lit candles whose flames flickered in the mirror on the piano, and put on a CD called Graceful Passages in the background, with music and spoken words from different spiritual traditions to guide the dying and the dead across the threshold." - Reimagining Death: Stories and Practical Wisdom for Home Funerals and Green Burials by Lucinda Herring
That was an excerpt from one of many wonderful home funeral stories in Lucinda Herring's 2019 book, which is a comprehensive guide filled with inspirational, lovingly recalled experiences of both home funerals, and green burials. In it, she describes the death of her own mother, the desire to have a home funeral for her, and how her expectations had to change due to family, a storm, and much more.
Home funerals can be scary and daunting, but first-hand accounts from people all around the world, and in Lucinda's book, are proof that anyone can do it, while also receiving one of the most meaningful gifts in life — time to say goodbye
Karen M. Wyatt, MD, author of the award-winning What Really Matters, hospice physician, and founder of End of Life University, describes the book perfectly. "For all who long to experience death as a natural and sacred part of life, Reimagining Death is the ideal handbook to inform, inspire, and ignite a new vision for our final passage. It is a beacon of hope, possibility, and renewal."
Read Lucinda's book for heartbreaking yet heartwarming end-of-life experiences and how to build community, reimagine, and reclaim deathcare practices. For on-demand training and free, in-depth information and how-to instructions on home funerals, go to CINDEA, or contact Madeline to help lead the way.
