Community Articles (listed by posting date)
General News · 17th June 2026
Margaret Verschuur
There is a profound difference between the older ways of caring for our dead and the modern systems that have replaced them.
Traditionally death was understood as a natural human experience. When possible, people died at home, surrounded by those who loved them. Family and friends tended the body, sat vigil, dug graves, carried caskets, and returned the body to the earth. Grief was not hidden from view. Pain was understood as part of love, and care for the dying and deceased happened inside a community.
In contrast, modern health and death care is often medicalized, outsourced, and removed from everyday life. People commonly die in institutions. Bodies are transferred into the care of professionals. Funeral homes manage what families and communities once knew how to do themselves. As medicine has become increasingly capable of extending life, death is often experienced as failure rather than an inevitable and sacred part of being human.
One of the ways the difference can be seen clearly is in burial practices. In many conventional funerals, mourners gather around a grave while the casket rests nearby. After the ceremony, the family leaves before the body is lowered and covered with earth. They are shielded from the most difficult moments. In a home funeral or community burial, however, loved ones often carry the casket, lower it themselves, and place the first shovels of earth into the grave. The act is heartbreaking, but it is also deeply human. It enables grief to be felt rather than held at a distance, allowing mourners to meet the reality of the loss more fully.
In earlier generations, communities cared for one another because they knew how. Death care was simpler. Over the past decades, burial has become increasingly professionalized and costly. Cremation, though more affordable, also often removes families from direct participation and carries significant environmental costs. Compassionate people working within the funeral and medical fields are often constrained by structures built around performance, liability, or profit. Humanity is often the first thing lost in systems driven by efficiency.
When someone we love dies, taking part in the practical tasks involved helps us truly comprehend the magnitude of the loss. It invites us to slow down and to stay present to what hurts and what deeply matters.
The DeathCare Collective helps to bridge an older way of being with death into the modern world. Many people want a more intimate and meaningful experience, but feel unsure how to navigate the practical, emotional, and legal realities. We offer guidance, support, knowledge and presence.
To ensure that end-of-life support is available when needed, the DeathCare Collective has established a recommended minimum donation of $2,500 from those who have received support and are able to contribute. This amount aligns with the federal CPP Death Benefit, which often provides up to $2,500 to assist with end-of-life expenses. For comparison, a conventional funeral-home burial on Cortes typically starts at $9,000, a cremation at $4,000, and includes considerably less support than we offer.
We welcome your financial contributions to support the DeathCare Collective’s coordination, training, equipment, and organizational capacity. When funds are available, honorariums are provided to team members who often devote significant time, practical wisdom, and dedication, as well as making themselves available on an on-call basis.
We offer community-based deathcare support to everyone who seeks it and ask for the generosity of our community to help sustain this commitment. Together, we are bringing death home.
Traditionally death was understood as a natural human experience. When possible, people died at home, surrounded by those who loved them. Family and friends tended the body, sat vigil, dug graves, carried caskets, and returned the body to the earth. Grief was not hidden from view. Pain was understood as part of love, and care for the dying and deceased happened inside a community.
In contrast, modern health and death care is often medicalized, outsourced, and removed from everyday life. People commonly die in institutions. Bodies are transferred into the care of professionals. Funeral homes manage what families and communities once knew how to do themselves. As medicine has become increasingly capable of extending life, death is often experienced as failure rather than an inevitable and sacred part of being human.
One of the ways the difference can be seen clearly is in burial practices. In many conventional funerals, mourners gather around a grave while the casket rests nearby. After the ceremony, the family leaves before the body is lowered and covered with earth. They are shielded from the most difficult moments. In a home funeral or community burial, however, loved ones often carry the casket, lower it themselves, and place the first shovels of earth into the grave. The act is heartbreaking, but it is also deeply human. It enables grief to be felt rather than held at a distance, allowing mourners to meet the reality of the loss more fully.
In earlier generations, communities cared for one another because they knew how. Death care was simpler. Over the past decades, burial has become increasingly professionalized and costly. Cremation, though more affordable, also often removes families from direct participation and carries significant environmental costs. Compassionate people working within the funeral and medical fields are often constrained by structures built around performance, liability, or profit. Humanity is often the first thing lost in systems driven by efficiency.
When someone we love dies, taking part in the practical tasks involved helps us truly comprehend the magnitude of the loss. It invites us to slow down and to stay present to what hurts and what deeply matters.
The DeathCare Collective helps to bridge an older way of being with death into the modern world. Many people want a more intimate and meaningful experience, but feel unsure how to navigate the practical, emotional, and legal realities. We offer guidance, support, knowledge and presence.
To ensure that end-of-life support is available when needed, the DeathCare Collective has established a recommended minimum donation of $2,500 from those who have received support and are able to contribute. This amount aligns with the federal CPP Death Benefit, which often provides up to $2,500 to assist with end-of-life expenses. For comparison, a conventional funeral-home burial on Cortes typically starts at $9,000, a cremation at $4,000, and includes considerably less support than we offer.
We welcome your financial contributions to support the DeathCare Collective’s coordination, training, equipment, and organizational capacity. When funds are available, honorariums are provided to team members who often devote significant time, practical wisdom, and dedication, as well as making themselves available on an on-call basis.
We offer community-based deathcare support to everyone who seeks it and ask for the generosity of our community to help sustain this commitment. Together, we are bringing death home.