Thankful Thoughtful Thursdays

In the book, The Moon in the Well: Wisdom Tales to Transform Your Life, Family, and Community, Erica Helm Meade shared a tale from Madagascar. In this story, God allowed the first man and woman to choose the manner of their death. They could die like the moon, or die like a banana tree. God explained that a moon fades but then returns, while a banana tree dies but green sprouts remain to continue living. Ultimately, the man and woman chose the banana tree, lived a happy life with their children and died. The message is: “Much of the richness of the human experience is tied to our mortality. We would not endeavor to love and to create, if it weren’t for our role as mortal creatures with finite lives in which we eventually grow old and die.”

This message helps provide some of the motivation behind our upcoming Thankful, Thoughtful Thursdays series - being thoughtful about end-of-life issues can make us be more thankful now. This series was created by Sandy Schuckers with the Centre County Office of Aging, Holly Reigh with Grane Hospice, and me and will be held on Thursdays, March 21, March 28, April 4, April 11, April 25 and May 2, from 10 a.m. to noon, including lunch, at the Bellefonte Senior Resource Center, 110 North Spring Street, Bellefonte.

With guest speakers Holly Reigh, a nurse liasion with Grane Hospice, H. Amos Goodall, an elder law attorney with Steinbacher, Goodall and Yurchak, and F. Glenn Fleming, the supervisor and funeral director with Koch Funeral Home, some of the topics covered will be: appropriate legal documents; hospice and what happens as we die; Have the Talk of a Lifetime; instructions to the funeral director; and companioning yourself and others through grief.

You’re encouraged but not required to attend all of these free sessions. RSVP to Vickey at 814-355-6720 by the Friday the week before the class.

Other upcoming events include:

• Voices of Grief: Honoring the Sacred Journey, Sunday, March 31 from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. at Good Shepherd Catholic Church, 867 Gray’s Woods Boulevard, Port Matilda. RSVP to Good Shepherd Catholic Church at 814-238-2110.
   
• Monday’s Moments Complimentary Luncheon – “Find the Path by Walking It,” Monday, April 1 from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. at the Courtyard by Marriott, 1730 University Drive, State College. Email Jackie@JackieHook.com, call 814-404-0546 or sign up on the Koch Funeral Home Facebook page to RSVP by Wednesday, March 27.
   
• Death Café, Monday, April 15 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Webster’s Bookstore Café, 133 E. Beaver Avenue, State College.

For more information, please visit the Koch Funeral Home website and click on Bereavement Gatherings and Events under the Local Resources tab.

Jackie Hook, MA, is a spiritual director, celebrant and end-of-life doula.  She coordinates the Helping Grieving Hearts Heal program through Koch Funeral Home in State College.  For more information, please call 814-237-2712 or visit www.kochfuneralhome.com.