Published Articles
2023 - April - Gazette - Bereaved Mother's Day
Bereaved Mother’s Day
I used to dread Mother’s Day. Of course I was always very grateful for my mother and wanted to celebrate her. But during the years when my husband and I were dealing with fer...
Thursday, April 27, 2023
2023 - March - Gazette - Going Home
Going Home
“Going home is powerful.”
F. Glenn Fleming, Koch Funeral Home funeral director and supervisor, shared these words at a recent community presentation for those interested in preparing f...
Thursday, March 30, 2023
2023 - March - CDT - Helping Hands - Programs to Move Grief to the Outside
One of my roles with Koch Funeral Home’s “Helping Grieving Hearts Heal” program is to create safe places to give people an opportunity to move their grief from the inside to the outside. Each time ...
Thursday, March 16, 2023
2023 - March - CDT - Good Life - A Grief Education and Support Series
A Grief Education and Support Series
I could see some of the participants holding back tears as we began introductions at the grief education and support group. The invitation was to share their n...
Sunday, March 12, 2023
2023 - February - Gazette - Organ Donation
Organ Donation
Full circle moments sometimes surprise us.
Breanne Radin Yeckley is a funeral director at Koch Funeral Home who, during her college years, played soccer at Gannon University in Eri...
Friday, February 24, 2023
2023 - February - Learning to Live: What's Your Story?
Fully-Alive and Soul-Fed Storytelling
It was a cold, rainy night last week when ten people arrived at my house and began mingling around the snack table. After 30 minutes of small-talk we moved in...
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
2023 - January - Gazette - Choices in the care of the deceased
Choices in the care of the deceased
I received a call from the daughter of a 96-year-old woman who had died. The daughter was looking for someone to officiate at her mother’s funeral service,...
Thursday, January 26, 2023
Previous Posts
2023 - November - Gazette - Dare! Silence
A lot goes on in the silence.” These are words I often share because silence is a big part of my work. For example, I ask for moments of silence when officiating at memorial and funeral services. D...
2023 - Nov - CDT - Helping Hands - Healing Through the Holidays
Healing through the Holidays
Author, poet, and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou, wrote, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” I witness this every day in my work ...
2023 - October - Gazette - Memories Become Treasures
Memories Become Treasures
I was visiting with my mom and dad a couple of weeks ago and we started talking about my dad’s parents, who I lovingly called Grandma and Grandad. My mom shared two memor...
2023 - September - Centered - Arriving Where I Started
I love the T.S. Eliot quote, from “Little Gidding,” Four Quartets:
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for t...
2023 - September - Gazette - Existing Elsewhere
A few years ago I sat with a handful of adults’s in a grief gathering and listened as one mother shared her story. She told us about the moments before and after her young child’s unexpected and su...
2023 - September - Town & Gown - End-of-Life Doulas, Graveside Journaling, and Sponsoring Memorials from Afar
We hope you read the September Town & Gown article by Holly Riddle featuring End-of-Life Doula Jackie Naginey Hook.
2023 - August - Gazette - Surrender Your Soul
Surrender Your Soul
A couple of weeks ago, I stepped onto the deck of our cabin at Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park, British Columbia. It was early morning and the sun had just risen from behind...
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