Listen to Mark Harris, author of "Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial," in an interview with Liam Moriarty discuss Natural and Green Burials.   Read more »

REDMOND, Wash. - When a loved one dies, a funeral home is the normal routine for many families.But there is a movement gaining strength in this area to leave the deceased and the funeral preparations at home.

When Pamela Howley lost her teenage daughter Daron to cancer, she couldn't bear the thought of handing her off to a stranger. "It just didn't seem right that you would have to let someone come in and take them away," she said. Howley sought out help and got it from Char Barrett, a home funeral guide.

Barrett conducts workshops for people seeking a more personal way to grieve. She takes students through the steps of preparing their loved ones for burial the natural way, with no funeral home, no embalming fluid, and no strangers.

While she instructs the students how to bathe and dress the departed, she demonstrates how children can decorate a bio-degradable casket in the next room.The concept is to re-involve the family in a process that was abandoned in the last century.

The vast majority of people in Seattle's historic cemeteries were prepared for funeral in their own homes, often by their own families. Somewhere along the way that tradition was lost.

"And that is when I maintain, that as a country, we lost connection with grief because we lost connection with our loved one's body," Barrett said.

Home funerals are described as a final, loving, hands-on tribute to a family member - a way to care for them in death as they did in life. Believers say it's an uplifting, empowering experience to help send off their loved one their way - in their home, surrounded by their people.

"It gave us, you that, kind of bonding time to let her go," Howley said.

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW - KING 5 VIDEO

First we live, then we die. Most of us do a pretty good job of planning for the living part, but not many of us spend a lot of time planning for death. Or, more specifically, what happens to our bodies after death. Why is it important to have a funeral? What happens to the body when it gets taken from the hospital or your home? Open casket vs. closed casket? Does anyone use a hearse anymore? And what are cremains anyway? Washington State is third in the country when it comes to the rate of cremation. Why? Do funeral directors take advantage of grieving family members to scam their customers? How do our spiritual beliefs affect our decisions about what happens to our remains? What will your final decision be and why?

John Eric Rolfstad is the director of the People's Memorial Association in Seattle.

Char Barrett is founder of A Sacred Moment and a funeral director who arranges home funerals.

Robin Heppell is a funeral consultant. He assists funeral directors and cemeterians with the latest technologies. He is also a fourth generation funeral director.

Click here to listen to the RE-BROADCAST of the 3/19/08 show:

Everyone has attended an impersonal funeral service at least once. We attend the service out of duty and respect to our loved one, but five minutes into a generic reading in which the decedent’s name is inserted, or not, into a script, we look at our watches wondering when it will be over.    Read more »

Small but growing trend helps people reclaim death rituals, experts say   Read more »

Read the tribute shared at the June 9th Celebration of Life gathering for Jim Klima, written and read by Jim and Sue's longtime friend Carol.   Read more »

New People's Memorial Funeral Cooperative opening in Seattle June 11th, also providing home funeral services through A Sacred Moment.   Read more »

Click here to listen to an interview with Char Barrett about the profound impact home funerals can have on families and friends dealing with the death of a loved one.   Read more »

Home Funeral Option provides new level of involvement in ritual... "It's going back to our roots, really", Barrett said. "If you study the history of funerals in the country, it's the way we used to do it."

As reported in Death Care Business Advisor, April 10, 2007   Read more »

Posted on March 19th, 2007, in Columns, FuneralWire.com
Reprinted in Washington State Funeral Directors Association – Newsletter, April 2007   Read more »

Seattle Post Intelligencer
Standard funeral not sole option
March 19, 2007

The Stranger – Seattle’s Only Newspaper
Funerals go “Outside the Box”
March 6, 2007

People's Memorial Association
A Sacred Moment Home Funeral Service
March 2007