A COLLECTIVE FOR THE DYING AND THEIR LOVED ONES

Traditionally deathcare was offered in community. It is also one of the ways in which community is formed. Before dying became a medicalized event and before embalming practices and funerals became an industry, we cared for our own. We knew our loved ones' wishes and carried them out with the support of our network. Final acts of care were carried out by loving hands, not outsourced to professionals. This contact and presence with the reality of death affected the way we grieved and also how we experienced our own mortality. Facing the inevitability of one of life's most powerful passages with community empowered us to live more fully.

This month we will be joined by Joan Maxwell, a hospice singer with over a decade of experience at the bedside of the dying. She will give a demonstration and teaching for some short and simple songs. She will also discuss bedside singing techniques. 

"I truly feel that we, as singers, need not worry about how well rehearsed we are or how many songs we memorize. Attention, connecting, engaging, bringing joy and comfort - if the motivation is from the heart, honestly expressed and simply offered, it is simply and gratefully received and accepted." - Joan Maxwell

If you have any desire to be of service at end of life in any capacity (healing arts, doula, legal, music, green burial etc) please join our collective!

We meet at Ripple:

701 East Bay Street Suite 121

GPS will direct you to the main Mercantile & Mash lot; we are located in the lot behind Rappahannock Oyster Bar, on the corner of East Bay and Blake Street. East Bay facing side. Parking lot is monitored but not so much on weekends.

Parking lot is monitored but not so much in the evenings. Street parking on Blake St for anyone that wants to play it safe.