Death is often regarded as the final frontier that demands certain rituals and practices to preserve a dead person’s dignity and that allow their loved ones an opportunity to send them off with love and respect.
From Friday, September 16, until Sunday, September 18, Krista Cadieux will host a special hands-on training workshop that provides the knowledge and skills necessary to tenderly care for another at death.
“We’ll practice moving, washing, dressing, casketing and standing vigil with live models,” she said. “We’ll paint and decorate caskets. Practical knowledge gained includes BC legalities and logistics, personal protection, and death-care ethics. Old-fashioned home funeral vigils are empowering and rich in healing benefits.”
This will be of special interest to anyone interested in reclaiming home death care. People employed in the home care, pastoral care, palliative care, hospice work and family care should be especially interested in this workshop.
The workshop kicks on Fridsy, September 16, with a public showing of the documentary, A Family Undertaking, at Sangha Bean Café located at 111 Connaught Avenue in downtown Revelstoke. There is a $10 admission charge. Then on Saturday and Sunday the workshop takes place under the tutelage of Don Morris, retired funeral director and community counselor who is one of the country’s best-known pioneers in the field of death and dying. Don brought the Green Burial Council to Canada in 2010 (greenburialcouncil.org), consulted to CINDEA, opened Canada’s first Death Café in Victoria in 2012, and helped co-create the Canadian Community for Death Mid-wifery (www.ccdeathmidwifery.org) Don is an active member of the Chevra Kaddisha — the Holy Burial Society — in Victoria. In 2015 he co-founded the homefuneralpracticum.ca.
Krista is an emerging community end-of-life companion/guide and educator in Revelstoke. She received a BSc in Gerontology from University of Guelph. Besides being a hospice volunteer and director of the Revelstoke Hospice Society, she is also core member of the Canadian Community for Death Midwifery (www.ccdeathmidwifery.org). She recently graduated from the Beyond Yonder School for Community Deathcaring in Canada. In February 2016 she initiated Revelstoke’s Death Cafe at the Sangha Bean Cafe where she also leads intimate End-of-Life Care Directive groups. Her passion and compassion for end-of-life concerns is a gift to the community.
Although the workshop does not take place until September 16, Krista asks that people interested in broadening their interest in this field register for it by this Friday, September 2. You can reserve your place in the workshop by making a $75 deposit on its $250 cost. Cash, cheques, or debit or credit cards are all acceptable means of making your deposit. Please drop by Sangha Bean to make your deposit.
Questions? Call Don Morris at 250-580-2121 or Krista Cadieux at 250-814-4368.
You can also go www.revelstoke.bpt.me for more information or to register online.
