Past Event: Reclaiming the Care of Our Dying and Our Dead

Do you imagine that joy meets sorrow when family and friends gather to care for a dying loved one at home? Would you like to hold the wake and funeral in surroundings that were dear to him or her and familiar to you? Here is an opportunity to learn how it can be done — what our laws say and the simple efforts that can make it happen. Led by Peg Lorenz, founder of Peaceful Passage at Home. Space is limited and registration required. More info at www.transitionwayland.org or by calling Rebecca Furie 508-877-0419.

all are welcome

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Dying at home, after-death care, and home funerals are family- and community-centered responses to death. Through many millennia, this is how we cared for our dying and dead. The experience, while sad, is ultimately deeply gratifying. Grieving in the intimacy of our homes helps us comfort and support one another.

• Saturday, March 21, 2015, 1:00 – 4:30
• Church of the Holy Spirit, 169 Rice Road, Wayland, MA

You can care for your loved one at home…

• No law requires embalming.
• A family may prepare and file a death certificate.
• A family may transport the deceased.

Nothing in these processes is beyond our ability.

Reclaiming the Care of Our Dying and Our Dead introduces home deaths and hospice, home wakes, and home funerals. Facilitator Peg Lorenz will discuss all the legal facts and logistical details. She will talk about the enormous personal benefits that come with this profound moment in a family’s life. We will follow four families who chose home funerals in an excerpt from the PBS documentary A Family Undertaking. There will be time for discussion, questions, and answers. In the final hour, for those who are interested, Peg will demonstrate bathing, dressing, cooling, and carrying the body.

• The workshop will be limited to 30 participants.
• To register, please email info@transitionwayland.org or call Rebecca Furie at 508-877-0419.
• This workshop is offered on a gift economy basis, participants pay what they can afford and what they feel the event was worth to them.

Workshop leader Peg Lorenz is a home funeral guide, consultant, and founder of Peaceful Passage at Home. Peg has 20 years of experience rendering hospice care. She earned certificates in end-of-life care from the University of Southern Maine and home funeral care from Crossings: Caring for Our Own at Death. A member of the Board of Directors of the National Home Funeral Alliance, Peg also chairs its Legislative Committee. She participates in the Threshold Choir, a volunteer group that sings at bedsides of people who are dying. You may learn more about what Peg offers at peacefulpassageathome.com.