DEATH CARE DIRECTIVES, FINAL WISHES
Planning for end-of-life transitions
Death is a sacred passage we will all experience. Considering and communicating your wishes before the time arrives can make that journey easier for you and your loved ones.
With COVID-19 making its way around the globe, this is quite an uncertain time for us all. Death is looming, but for whom, we don't know. Health care, death and post-death care may be greatly transformed during this crisis. We're preparing to see many pass in less-than-ideal circumstances, possibly alone, without immediate funeral rituals or memorial gatherings. The urgency of the time asks for us to consider our loved ones, dependents, businesses and belongings. If we get sick, what can we do to minimize the stress for those left behind? Can we streamline transference of care of our pets or dependents? Will anyone have access to our accounts? What do we wish for our loved ones to know who are left behind? What bigger forces do we feel are sacred? What spirits are we connected to? How do we desire to be prayed for or ritually tended in the timing of my transition and after?
Linked here (and below) are our original Advanced Death Care Directives & Five Wishes Forms.
Feel free to download them for free. Use what is helpful and edit as you wish. These are great starting points for preparing. There's space to write to your loved ones what you'd love shared at your memorials, preferences for body disposition and other requests regarding your end-of-life transition. This document was created in a world with many options.
We're now in a great unknown. Desperate times ask for creative adaptive solutions. While these documents provide a beautiful launching point for meditating on end-of-life, one may want to consider their ideal wishes and their emergency plans. Body disposition may shift from burials to direct cremation in some places or extreme moments. Tending of the bodies and consciousness of the dead may need to wait. People may be forced to bury their own dead directly if they have the privilege of land. When tending the deceased, please consider that a body may still shed the coronavirus still for several days or longer. While the earth may metabolize the virus with ease, home funeral guides and families may need to take extra precaution when tending their beloveds.
Luckily, ritual tending can happen from a distance. Consciousness is non-local. We're available to support folks in ritual preparation to become an ancestor or to support their beloved dead.
Given the urgency of the times, we are extending rate flexibility with some of our end of life services for those wanting to prepare for their own death or the death of their loved ones. We're available by Zoom or phone to provide spiritual support, end-of-life planning, online grief rituals and a group for tending our collective dead. Email us at HeartwardSanctuary@gmail.com if you need immediate support.
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