Threshold Society of Western New York

This is what a grave looks like after it’s been dug at a conservation burial ground. The grave is dug by hand, usually by a team of 2 (sometimes 3), and the ear...th is carefully laid out in 3 separate piles so that the earth can go back in to its original layer. This step is critical to help reestablish the plant life. No astroturf for this grave - no way! Surrounded by the simple beauty of nature. See more

I was blessed to visit Grandy in her dying time, she was nonverbal but she heard and understood every word. Completely free of any medication, Grandy sipped he...r daughter’s protein smoothies as she journeyed for many months in her bed. It seemed as though she was enjoying the gentle withdrawal, contemplating her glorious life, her joys, her sorrows, her plans for the next maybe? When she no longer needed her limbs to support her they slowly and gently drew upward toward her chest - a return to the fetal position in the womb, after all, she was going home. Womb to Tomb. The circle of life. After her final sigh, we supported her daughter Walker as she bathed and anointed Grandy’s body, shrouded her in white and laid in honor by her favorite window. Grandy was treated with love, care and deep tenderness - no invasive embalming, no broken tendons to straighten her out, no sutures or wire ties. She lay as she was, beautiful, at peace, undisturbed, for 3 more days. Please consider a home vigil and funeral for your loved-one. Sacred Crossings can guide you, or take the Art of Death Midwifery training to learn how. Legal in almost all 50 states. Sacred Crossings Funeral Home offers home home vigil and funeral services to families in Los Angeles: 800-805-5561

There's a woman I follow on Instagram, who takes dead animals she happens across, usually on the road, adorns them in flowers, and photographs them as a way of ...honoring their lives. Here is a caption from her latest memorial: "I’m sorry. It’s what I say to each one. Not just for me, or for the driver who hit her, but for all of us, our cruelties and harms, intentional or not, our indifferences and blind eyes to the other beings. I adorn her and take a photo each time, not just to honor her, this one, with beauty, but to honor all the beings we fail to see. May the color and light from the flowers, branches, weeds, and leaves surrounding them in death help us to see them all. All of them." Amanda Stronza is an elephant conservationist (http://www.ecoexistproject.org/). I highly recommend a follow - @amandastronza on IG. She takes plenty of amazing photographs of live animals as well. All photos Amanda Stronza Captions from original posts included with each picture. Edited to add: Here is a link to Amanda on Instagram: https://instagram.com/amandastronza If you are interested in my photography, you can follow me Elizabeth Flora Ross Photography. While I appreciate all the friend requests, this FB account is for connecting with people I know IRL.

@ ! * * "...interdisciplinary speakers will discuss the impact of the pandemic upon diverse vulnerable populations, including Black/African Americans and Latinx, persons with disabilities, immigrants, persons who are incarcerated, older adults, nursing home residents, and persons who are homeless. The central role of palliative care across all systems will be addressed and a trauma-informed perspective in working with those affected by the pandemic, as well as the critical importance of workforce education and training."

The tree graves of Indonesia where dead babies are ‘buried’ inside the trunks of growing trees so they can be ‘absorbed’ by nature The ritual takes place in the... remote regency of Tana Toraja, a mountainous region of South Sulawesi in Indonesia Villagers hollow out holes in living trees before wrapping their dead infants in cloth and sealing them inside The corpse is believed to be absorbed over the years and dozens of children can be interred in each of the trees See more

. If Kali's father was a white man, he would have been SEEN in that Labor & Delivery room. When his eyes darted around pleading fo...r help and searching for compassion, he would have been regarded as MORE than a shadow on the wall. . My night terrors and day dreams call me back to the my son and I were left to linger on a hospital bed, while my husband and I begged for the care required to save Kali's life. My body is shaking uncontrollably from fever and undiagnosed, stage-3, necrotizing chorioamnionitis. I am back on that operating table, strapped down, being disemboweled, My guttural screams echo through the ward, as the code blue team crushes down on my abdomen. I feel every inch of the forearm being shoved further into my vagina. I grieve the negligent homicide of our perfect, 9lb 13oz child, who struggled for life while vaginal birth ideologue . , , of #BirthingCenterofBuffalo/Buffalo Womenservices ignored our worsening condition and refused necessary surgical intervention, stating, " ..." ' % . His remains sit on a shelf inside a tarnished brass urn because his parents' desperate cries were IGNORED. All of this having been said, it is my moral obligation to prompt us in dialogue and ask: " ' ?" ' ' -- . White privilege means that my husband left the hospital with a dead Black baby and a living, white wife. KALI'S LAWSUIT: https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument -- . : Another full-term Black baby catastrophically injured and killed by the gross negligence of , . and . , (Birthing Center of Buffalo/Buffalo Womenservices). The facts of this mother's case are particularly horrific and heart wrenching. Vandaleya Caviness was expecting twins... She attempted to get help for herself and her twins at Women & Children's Hospital of Buffalo (since renamed Oishei Children's Hospital) FOUR TIMES and was dismissed and sent home... The last time she presented at the hospital she delivered one living twin and one dead child (baby Jamel). BABY JAMEL'S LAWSUIT: https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument

George Floyd's mother, whom passed two years prior, was right there with him in his last embodied moments. Now, we must answer the call and -- For our elders, our brothers, our sisters, our daughters and sons. #TOGETHERWERISE. If you can, join your comrades in the streets. There are also MANY other ways to be involved and demonstrate SOLIDARITY (see comments). . .... GET CONNECTED: Black Love Resists In the Rust is one of the local groups organizing community support.

Everytime I think of Hippos I will now be reminded of Advanced Directives

Join us on Twitter TODAY at @raddeathstudies May 20th at 5pm EST. We’ll be live-streaming a conversation on Mediating Mourning During Covid-19: A Funeral Direc...tor’s Perspective. Dr. Kami Fletcher & Michelle Acciavatti will be discussing: -The role of bodies in mourning rituals - How can we meet the needs of the grieving through creative and compassionate new mourning rituals in light of COVID-19 restrictions? - What can past funeral and mourning rituals teach us about grieving now during a pandemic? Dr. Kami Fletcher is a history professor and President of the Collective for Radical Death Studies who researches and writes about African American death work and deathways, the subject of her latest book, Till Death Do Us Part: American Ethnic Studies as Borders Uncrossed, a comprehensive study of how burial customs highlight social status and class. Michelle Acciavatti is a co-founder of the Collective for Radical Death Studies and End of Life Specialist now working as a licensed funeral director in Vermont educating the public on quality of life values so they live well until they die. She is also founder of Ending Well, an organization committed to personalized support for people to experience their own good death and co-founder of Green Burial Vermont, a non-profit dedicated to educate about social/environmentally burial practice.