Home Funerals & Natural Burials

With hospitals working to ensure public safety during this COVID-19 pandemic, having access to a loved one at end-of-life, or family and friends if you’re ill, can be limited, restrictive and potentially dangerous. More than ever, people are choosing to die at home surrounded by family, if possible. Having a loved one die at home and to be buried and attended to by those at home can be challenging and also deeply rewarding. Often this way of connecting as family, sheltering companions or housemates can be a profound gift for everyone present and a way of actively moving emotional pain or trauma through the body, developing resiliency while facing the impossible. Here are resources that can help you do just that.

The National Home Funeral Alliance (NHFA) is an exceptional international organization providing excellent resources, information and support, including an emergency hotline and a Quick Guide to Home Funerals by State. They also have a wonderful new podcast, A Path Home, with a recent episode featuring my dear friend and colleague, Rev. Kate Adamson, interfaith minister.

Kate and I have formed a new volunteer organization, Threshold Services of Central Virginia to provide education, advocacy, vigil sitting and set up, after-death body care and preparations, informational and logistical support for all aspects of home funerals and natural burials, including care and care coordination and crafting meaningful, tailored ceremonies, rituals and rites of passage. Our team of volunteers provide care or support loved ones in providing care to suit each family’s needs. We are devoted to holistic care at end-of-life and after death. We work closely with the NHFA to train our volunteers with their excellent educational resources and are joining the wave of support for their "20 in 2020!" goal - 20 new Threshold / Community Care Groups in 2020!

Click here to see their Pandemic Resources for Families Facing End Of Life

Monthly volunteer meetings and trainings followed by open-to-the-public Death Salons for discussing end-of-life and after-death matters are just a few of the projects underway. We also have upcoming events and playshops such as The Death Box Initiative, The Advance Care Directive Party - fill it out, sign it and celebrate it, and so much more! Join our mailing list and stay in the loop about upcoming events and articles of interest. You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Soon, you will find more nationwide resources here as well as a comprehensive resource list for Virginia residents.

If you are a service provider and would like to be listed here, please contact Willow Kelly.

If you are in Virginia and have need of home funeral and/or natural burial services,
please contact Threshold Services of Central Virginia

Email: thresholdva@gmail.com

Phone: (434) 566-9060 or (434) 960-5126

Facebook: @thresholdva

Instagram: @thresholdcva