Caring For Your Own After Death: Nurturing connection through home funerals and wakes
with Kaat Vander Straeten
October 19th, 2020 4pm PT
Keeping a loved one at home after they have died, taking care of their body for several days while you grieve at your own pace in your home and community... that is a home funeral or wake. It is practically possible and also legal in most cases and places. Until fairly recently it was the tradition, and there are many reasons why we should reclaim it in the face of a dominant culture that is intent on suppressing it.
We will touch briefly on practical body care, legal aspects and considerations of social and economic justice. But mostly we will ask what the dead body could mean for our personal healing and the healing of our grief-illiterate, suppressing and memory-killing culture. We will engage with philosophy, religion, art, history and anthropology. We will also share stories of those who struggled keeping their loved one at home and held death, grief and love in one embrace.
Kaat Vander Straeten is a long-time community organizer with a Transition focus and a certified permaculture designer in MetroWest Boston, where she founded several organizations for local resilience. Her passion for helping families take care of their deceased is nourished by her love of empowering personal choice-with-responsibility, her service to a regenerative and grief-literate culture, and a concern for social justice. Kaat was trained by Peg Lorenz in after-death body care and has helped several families take care of their loved ones at home.
Kaat works with Peaceful Passage at Home, a group of home funeral guides and advocates based in eastern and central Massachusetts.
with Kaat Vander Straeten
October 19th, 2020 4pm PT
Keeping a loved one at home after they have died, taking care of their body for several days while you grieve at your own pace in your home and community... that is a home funeral or wake. It is practically possible and also legal in most cases and places. Until fairly recently it was the tradition, and there are many reasons why we should reclaim it in the face of a dominant culture that is intent on suppressing it.
We will touch briefly on practical body care, legal aspects and considerations of social and economic justice. But mostly we will ask what the dead body could mean for our personal healing and the healing of our grief-illiterate, suppressing and memory-killing culture. We will engage with philosophy, religion, art, history and anthropology. We will also share stories of those who struggled keeping their loved one at home and held death, grief and love in one embrace.
Kaat Vander Straeten is a long-time community organizer with a Transition focus and a certified permaculture designer in MetroWest Boston, where she founded several organizations for local resilience. Her passion for helping families take care of their deceased is nourished by her love of empowering personal choice-with-responsibility, her service to a regenerative and grief-literate culture, and a concern for social justice. Kaat was trained by Peg Lorenz in after-death body care and has helped several families take care of their loved ones at home.
Kaat works with Peaceful Passage at Home, a group of home funeral guides and advocates based in eastern and central Massachusetts.