• What is a Death Doula?
  • A Death Doula, sometimes referred to as a Death Midwife or End of Life (EOL) Doula, is a non-medical professional who provides care for a person physically, emotionally, or spiritually at EOL. 
• What does a Death Doula do? 
  • All Death Doulas have different specialities and offerings so not every doula is the same. In general, a Death Doula provides support and care, reasserts that dying is normal, can help improve remaining quality of life, can be a companion, help preplan, assist with difficult conversations and family meetings, reduce burnout for caregivers and family, sit vigil, help create and organize EOL plans and Advanced Directive (AD) documentation, funeral plans and at home viewings, help with feelings of grief and loss, memorial and legacy options, etc.
• Why would I need a Death Doula? 
  • There are many reasons someone may want to hire a Death Doula and the average person may never choose to do so. Death is something we all do and we only get to do it once. Usually it’s messy and complicated and affects many other people besides just the person dying. A Death Doula can assist with EOL organizing, alleviating some of the burden whether emotional or otherwise, helping with fear of death and death acceptance, or even just education or companionship.
• How/Why did you become a death doula?
  • I was able to become a Death Doula through constant education and finding other doula communities where I could learn and grow. There are many programs for doula certifications and I completed a number of them to be able to serve my community adequately. Why I became one is because loss and grief and death are things people don’t like to feel, look at, talk about, or deal with. And when we collectively shun what makes us uncomfortable without trying to understand why that is, we do our communities, our families, and ourselves a massive disservice. No one should be or feel scared and alone when facing grief, loss or death and my goal is to help people get to a place where, with education, understanding, and time, love and acceptance replaces that fear.
• Is it hard thinking about death all the time?
  • I truly believe thinking about death allows us to live and love more fully. Yes, I do sometimes get sad when I think about death in the context of any living creature dying. But that sadness doesn’t come from death itself. It comes from not wanting suffering, pain, cruelty to be a part of the dying process and knowing that there will be a final word, a final touch. Thinking about death “all the time” makes me cherish every moment with someone more. I am able to express my feelings readily and easily to the ones I care about because I know there will come a day when I will never get to again. I never want to regret the things I didn’t say to the ones I love.
• Why Golden Ginkgo?
  • Every year when the warmth of summer begins to fade and the leaves begin to turn from rich green to burnt orange and dull brown, there is one tree that is just beginning to shine. The ginkgo tree (ginkgo biloba or maidenhair tree), ancient and hardy, changes its odd, fan-shaped leaves from green to gold only once the air catches the chill of autumn. They spend half of the fall season glowing like bright golden sentinels and then, seemingly all at once, each little fan falls to the ground. This living fossil, its presence here on earth predating humans and surviving the first mass extinction event 200 million years ago, was originally rooted in Asia but can now be found on nearly every continent. Presently, ginkgos can be found lining city streets, shading college campuses, and dotting local parks as they can withstand and thrive through pollution and drought, disease and pestilence. Ginkgos are deciduous trees with separate male and female trees with favoritism to the males in public spaces. This is due to the female trees fruiting seeds that, upon suffering the effects of gravity, split open, make a mess, and smell, well, like death. “How can only male trees pollinate?” you may wonder. They change their sex to female and carry on propagating the species making them an unexpected member of the LGBTQIA2S+ community. So for me and for what I do, the ginkgo is the perfect symbol for deathcare. Older than human life, queer, surviving off what they can get, thriving despite urban decay, beautiful and smelly and everywhere. The ginkgo, like death, was here before human life began on this earth and there is something comforting in knowing it will be here after we have all gone.