Death is a touchy subject for most people, taboo to some even. Death is a constant companion for most of us though and, pretend all we may, the reality is that it touches our lives here and there along our timeline until eventually it’s our turn to face the inevitability of our own mortality.
Death has touched my life repeatedly since I was five when my grandmother passed at the age of 92. Every time it has happened I’ve had the same thought, each of these people have been vastly different and unique, yet the way we said goodbye to them was exactly the same. How does that make any sense? It never did sit right with me. My life is not cookie-cutter why should my passage be so? Which is why I had planned on being cremated. That is until I had the chance to hear Laura Starkey, founder of Heartwood Preserve, speak at an environmental event Rock the Boat Productions was hosting a few years ago.