Death & Grief Talk with The Grave Woman®

“By envisioning who I want to be on my deathbed, I invited life in.”

- Alua Arthur (a-lu-ah) Founder of Going with Grace, Death Doula, Recovering Lawyer, Perpetual Seeker of nothing to be found What do an authentic life lived and death worth dying look like? How does sitting with the inevitable reality of our deaths impact our willingness to show up in the world as our most true selves so that when we meet our deaths; we are able to die empty? In this episode of The Death & Grief Talk Podcast, I participate in a beautiful exchange with my death care colleague and founder of Going With Grace Alua Arthur . Alua Arthur is a death doula, recovering attorney, and the founder of Going with Grace, a death doula training and end-of-life planning organization that exists to support people as they answer the question, “What must I do to be at peace with myself so that I may live presently and die gracefully?” Going with Grace works to improve and redefine the end-of-life experience for people rooted in every community using the individual lived experience as the foundation. Alua was a keynote speaker at EndWell 2019, and has been featured in the LA Times, Vogue, Refinery29, The Doctors, and InStyle. She is inspired by the gift of LIFE itself and is always on the quest for the best donuts and fried plantains! Alua Arthur is also the author of Briefly, Perfectly Human. Connect with Alua Online Read Briefly Perfectly Human https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/alua-arthur Connect on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/going_with_grace/?hl=en Visit the Website www.goingwithgrace.com About the Death & Grief Talk Podcast Death and grief are sacred aspects of our human journey that we all witness, honor, and process uniquely. The Death and Grief Talk Podcast is here to host open and honest conversation about the questions, fears, anxieties, and emotions that we all experience when someone dies. I am your host The Grave Woman. I'm a licensed funeral director, embalmer, insurance agent and scared death/grief care practitioner. I have over a decade of experience working in the death care industry. I am dedicated to helping everyone navigate individual journeys to find peace and purpose with life, death, and grief. Ways you can listen on the go: Anchor FM https://anchor.fm/deathandgrieftalk Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3mdh03y... Watch on YouTube www.youtube.com/thegravewoman Follow @thegravewoman on social media

Loss and grief have a magical and peculiar way of propelling our personal and spiritual journeys in directions that in many times result in us showing up for ourselves and in the world in ways that differ from the visions of ourselves that we had sketched in our minds. For many, spirituality becomes less about subscribing to what some consider to be outdated traditions and more about seeking answers and guidance from divine sources both seen and unseen. When embarking upon transformative spiritual journeys many seek guidance from those gifted in communicating with the “other side”. One such person is Shawna Temple. Shawna Temple aka Oshunslight describes herself as a Hoodoo/eclectic witch living in Houston, TX. Her practice combines spiritual paths, reiki healing, and psychology. Shawna holds two master’s degrees in psychology and counseling and is now pursuing a PsyThD. According to her website www.oshunslight.com , Shawna’s path is one of a Root worker and Grey Witch. She blends aspects of African Spirituality, Santaria, wisdom from the Orishas, Traditional Witchcraft, and good ol' Southern Hoodoo. She has walked a varied path and am ALWAYS learning. She believes strongly in the unseen. Forces that were set about at the beginning of time and before. She believes that witches, brujas, and root workers; are blessed to have the intuition and knowledge to touch this energy and be a part of the reawakening of the human race.” Shawna is the founder of The Deep Roots Society which boasts members from around the world and practitioners of varied backgrounds. Many paths are represented and respected in the space that she has created. I was blessed to find and connect with Shawna via social media (Instagram to be exact) where she shares jewels of wisdom, readings, and real spiritual talk with her nearly 20,000 followers daily. During our time together in this episode of The Death and Grief Talk Podcast, Shawana and I candidly discuss everything from what left-handed work is, what she defines as rootwork, the necessity of elevating one’s ancestors to why it is important to not rush into setting up ancestral alters immediately after someone dies. Connect with Shawna Online Website www.oshunslight.com Email Oshunslight@gmail.com Social Media @Oshunslight YouTube @oshunslightoshunslight8329 Magical Moments with Oshun’s Light Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/1nkgrd5iXnccuck4iBQ8xM About the Death & Grief Talk Podcast Death and grief are sacred aspects of our human journey that we all witness, honor, and process uniquely. The Death and Grief Talk Podcast is here to host open and honest conversations about the questions, fears, anxieties, and emotions that we all experience when someone dies. ​ I am your host The Grave Woman. I'm a licensed funeral director, embalmer, insurance agent, and scared death/grief care practitioner. I have over a decade of experience working in the death care industry. I am dedicated to helping everyone navigate individual journeys to find peace and purpose in life, death, and grief. Ways you can listen on the go: Anchor FM https://anchor.fm/deathandgrieftalk Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3mdh03y... Watch on YouTube www.youtube.com/thegravewoman Follow @thegravewoman on all social media

The universe has a very strange way of connecting us all in ways that at times seem divinely orchestrated and at others feel completely chaotic and random. Regardless of how it chooses to connect it; the universe, aka Spirit is intentional, timely and unfathomably precise and accurate in its execution. I was connected to today’s guest of The Death & Grief Talk Podcast; Krystina Christiansen in a way that feels equally divine and random. Krystina is a filmmaker based in Los Angeles, CA. She's produced, directed, and written a bit of everything - from documentaries and music videos to art installations and talk shows. I had the honor of experiencing Krystina exercising her passion for story telling through the medium of film on the set of a documentary she is producing about the death care industry. In between shooting with her in LA we had a chance to share an intimate moment over dinner in which she shared the heart touching and breaking story behind her passion project. During our time together in this podcast episode, Krystina and I discuss everything from the way Spirit speaks to and guides us, shared southern Baptist roots, how telling the stories about life and death and those of us who work in the death care industry has assisted her in navigating her personal grief to the current SAG AFRA strike and its true impact on the creators and the viewers of the stories they write, perform, and sell them. Currently, she's campaigning for her short documentary, “Dear Brandon'', following an outdoorsman now paralyzed with MS who, at the end of his life, writes a letter that was left on a hiking trail in Utah by his social worker. The inspirational letter quickly made its way to the highest peaks in the world with his newfound family of strangers, which is how she finds it 3000 miles away in Hawaii. The 30-day crowdfunding campaign has a goal of $20,000 in order to finish the film and submit it to festivals for distribution consideration. To support, visit seedandspark.com/fund/brandon. To read the letter visit: krystinachristiansen.com/brandon Krystina is also in post-production on her first feature length documentary produced under the Appian Way and QC Entertainment banners, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Eli Roth as Executive Producers. When not immersed in storytelling she can most likely be found maintaining her duolingo streak, wandering a National Park, art gallery, or the nearest science museum. Connect with Krystina Online Website www.krystinachristiansen.com Email Krystinaoliva@gmail.com Social Media @KrystinaOlivia Brandon’s Instagram @forbrandonslove77 About the Death & Grief Talk Podcast Death and grief are sacred aspects of our human journey that we all witness, honor, and process uniquely. The Death and Grief Talk Podcast is here to host open and honest conversation about the questions, fears, anxieties, and emotions that we all experience when someone dies. I am your host The Grave Woman. I'm a licensed funeral director, embalmer, insurance agent and scared death/grief care practitioner. I have over a decade of experience working in the death care industry. I am dedicated to helping everyone navigate individual journeys to find peace and purpose with life, death, and grief. Ways you can listen on the go: Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3mdh03y... Watch on YouTube www.youtube.com/thegravewoman Follow @thegravewoman on all social media

I was first introduced to Caitlin Doughty through the Ask a Mortician YouTube channel in 2012. Caitlin Doughty is a mortician, advocate, and bête noire of the traditional funeral industry. In 2011 she founded the funeral reform collective The Order of the Good Death, which has spawned the death positive movement. Her educational web series "Ask a Mortician" has been viewed almost 200 million times and all three of her books Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, From Here to Eternity, and Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? were New York Times bestsellers.   

\Caitlin was the first funeral director (and might I add first female funeral director) that I ever saw articulacy, honestly and publicly discuss the good, bad, and ugly about the death care industry while challenging the way we “do death” in this country. She was also the first person to encourage me to expand my blogspot.com blog into a YouTube page. Over the years I have watched not only her YouTube channel, but she and her career blossom. The thing that I respect most about Caitlin is that though she has amassed countless supporters through her books, social media, public speaking and non-profit, she seems to remain grounded while balancing the role of the observer and advocate.

I recently interviewed Caitlin for the Death and Grief Talk Podcast and consider this episode to be Milestone for The Grave Woman because Caitlin is truly someone in this industry that not only look up to but respect. During our time together I connect with Caitlin heart to heart as she shares how she maintains the balance of her online success and real-life experience, practices self-care, avoids appropriating those that invite her into their sacred space of loss, grief, and celebration and much more.   The greatest take away from our interview is that though speaking truth to power, advocacy, educating and speaking up for others can be exhausting, BUT the work that so many of us are doing in death care to create a more equitable, option focused and leveled environment for consumers and death care professionals alike is necessary and not without the reward of positive progressive change.

Connect with Caitlin Online

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thegooddeath/ and  https://www.instagram.com/ordergooddeath/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/OrderoftheGoodDeath
Twitter https://twitter.com/OrderGoodDeathref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Website www.orderofthegooddeath.com

According to Wikipedia, Hoodoo is a set of spiritual practices, traditions, and beliefs created and concealed from slaveholders by enslaved Africans in North America. Hoodoo evolved from various traditional African religions, practices, and in the American South incorporated with various elements. In this installment of The Death and Grief Talk Podcast Mrs. Lisa Jones, hoodoo practitioner and owner of Memphis Conjure defines her sacred practice passed down through maternal generations for over 100 years as simply “a pathway to peace” that has been demonized and misunderstood by white observers and lazy tongues.  

I was introduced to Mrs. Jones through her TikTok videos in which she uses discusses spiritual works, healing and ritual practice to promote and educate about her practice and spiritual products and services. I felt an instant attraction to and connection with Mrs. Jones. She reminded me of my Mama Julie, aunts, grandmothers and other women in my life who knowingly or unknowingly have practiced within our Gullah/ Geechee culture and community to navigate the spiritual journey of life, death and grief while supporting and sustaining our black and indigenous community.

Through her business Memphis Conjure Mrs. Jones sells Delta Style Hoodoo Products made by hand. She also creates and distributes ritually charged oils, powders & all things hoodoo including but not limited to mojo/nation sacks & bags, oils, powders, honey jars that are properly prepared to offer remedies for various conditions and enhance spiritual practice. Her practice and products are crafted according to a hoodoo tradition & style, taught to her by her grandmom & mom. Her family has practiced conjure/spiritual work & root work for over 108 years. Her great-grandmom, grandmother and mother were root workers and her grandmother worked on Beale Street during the 40's as a root worker & spiritual advisor.

According to her website “Hoodoo in all its variants is predominately considered a southern phenomenon. Many regions in the south can attribute conjure and rootwork to elders and ancestors who were exposed to the craft. Many were slaves who brought many traditions from the continent of Africa and other regions, or possibly native Americans who were adept at planting and seasonal anomalies. Many consider the craft evil or spooky and may not quite understand the correlations between survival and coping with the trauma of enslavement. Many books introduce the curious to the mystery of hoodoo and other crafts. We suggest reading these books with an open mind and seek to understand the “Why’s of Hoodoo” before the “How’s of Hoodoo".  It is a practice forged of necessity and trauma and the legacy of our African American ancestors.  We are forever agonized at what they suffered and seek to move forward in honor of all the lives before us & those who managed to persevere".    

Connect with Memphis Conjure online: 

Website www.memphisconjure.com 

Email memphisconjure@gmail.com 

TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@memphisconjure/video/7185711551523966251

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CJfdw25nRcA/

When someone passes away having personalized memorial keepsakes such as keychains, cups, t-shirts, jewelry, programs, fans, headstones, grave markers, and other items that reflect the personality, image, and encompass the essence of those that we have lost brings a level of comfort and peace that can not be explained. Having tangible things to hold, see and lean into can never replace our dearly departed loved ones but they do offer endless benefits that soothe and help us process our grief.  Traditionally in the death care industry companies and corporations that manufacture, distribute, and sell memorial keepsakes as well as other items and merchandise available for purchase to consumers by funeral homes and in online storefronts are historically white owned and operated. This leads me to ponder how much more meaningful, and impactful memorials keepsakes and other merchandise could be if they were not only created with intention but also distributed through vendors who share cultural values with and understand the communities that they serve. This shift could be tremendous for not only consumers but death care professionals, funeral homes, and cemeteries alike. This could also replace the historically appropriative and sales driven tactics used to products and items that target BIPOC consumers specifically. 

In this episode of The Death & Grief Talk Podcast; I have the honor of speaking with Latifa Franks; a young black female death care merchandise and memorial keepsake vendor. Latifa is fonder of C. Jackson Memorial Company which is fondly after her mother. C. Jackson Memorial Company was birthed out of Latifa’s desire to not only serve her community of Baltimore, Maryland but black communities worldwide with affordable, professional, high quality memorial keepsakes while honoring the legacy of her mother Cassandra Jackson who passed away when Latifa was only 10 years old.  On her website, Latifa sells several keepsakes including personalized memorial apparel, jewelry, portrait LED lights, urns and much more which can be personalized to reflect the image or likeness of loved ones and pets alike. Not only is Latifa using her company to serve, but she also uses her social media platforms to educate and give behind the scenes access into her daily life as a mortuary student and crematory operator.   

Connect with C. Jackson Memorial Company online 

Website: https://www.cjmemorialcompany.com/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/c.jacksonmemorialcompany/  

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/C.Jacksonmemorialcompany/

“There is nothing more powerful than to clearly articulate our intention to the universe and trust boldly in its desire to not only deliver but to also unfold itself before us as our path to enlightenment. What is your intention?”   - The Grave Woman  

“My intention is to alleviate unnecessary suffering in the world. Suffering is a spectrum; it doesn’t mean that we are in crisis and that that there is something wrong with us or that we are in a clinical space. The ways in which we are experiencing the world right now and the sickness of the unhelpful darkness is something that because of its consistency and exacerbation of our societal collapse causes me to ask the question what remains? What do we have that is ours? For me, I choose to hold on to my joy.”  - Dr. Crystallee Crain Ph.D.  

In this installment of The Death and Grief Talk Podcast I had the honor of connecting on a soul level with Dr. Crystallee Crain.  Crystallee Crain Ph.D. (she/her/hers) is an interdisciplinary public health scholar and human rights activist. She has academic roots in sociology, political science, and psychology. She specializes in exposing the layers of institutional inequality while supporting communities to shift ways of being and practice to improve life chances by bridging the worlds of academia, healing, and activism.  

 During our time together we discussed the difference sleep has on our perspectives and experience in the world, the importance of not allowing our realm which is full of adversity, struggling and suffering to steal our innate ability to experience and posses joy, the importance of personal agency as a method of self-preservation as well as mental health, and her personal journey with navigating grief caused by loosing a close friend during to an accidental drug overdose and how she intentionally holds space for joy in her grief and profession.  

Crystallee’s body of work represents a collective need to strengthen our responses to violence through transformative means, the need for liberatory practices, and a focus on healing as a revolutionary strategy for change. Crystallee holds an academic appointment with California State University – East Bay (Department of Political Science). She’s also the elected board chair of the Seeding Justice Foundation (PDX).Crystallee is the Founder & Principal Consultant of Prevention at the Intersections an organization that works to prevent violence and other forms of harm through community-based research and people-centered projects.   At Prevention at the Intersections, she publishes two open-access journals CATALYST and The Beauty of Black Creation.  The 2nd Edition of her textbook - A People’s Primer: Dispatches on Politics & Social Change (2022) came out this year. https://amzn.to/3jOTv5C 

Dr. Crain facilitates trainings with an emphasis on trauma, prevention science, and community capacity-building. She has worked with organizations across the country to support them in actualizing their values in the development and implementation of their mission and vision.   

You can learn more about her at www.preventionagenda.org, www.bestlifecoach.co and at www.crystalleecrain.org.  

Connect with Dr. Crain on Social Media 

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/crystalleecrain/
Twitter: @crystalleecrain 

IG: drcryscrain 

SIGN UP HERE https://www.thegravewoman.com/store/p50/ALIGN.html 

Read The Next Room Here https://www.amazon.com/Next-Room-Jane-Asher/dp/1737435608  

It was obvious from the onset of our connection that Jane and I were connected and destined to do something impactful and meaningful in the death care space together. After 2 years of intentional listening, meditating, praying, planning, asking and waiting for the right time; the project we're sharing with you was conceived in the universe and now is being birthed into our reality.  This powerful workshop on the Afterlife is dedicated to honoring and building our connection to those we love who have passed away. With the guidance of Jane and myself, You will experience clarity and gain understanding as we guide you through the steps of opening your arms, heart and mind to expand and embrace practical ideas, perspectives and rituals.  We will explore and literally walk you through the steps of how to connect and communicate clearly with your loved ones, once they have transcended to The Next Room.  We want this workshop to be as accessible as possible therefor it has been priced accordingly at $44.44. In addition to the workshop/course we will be offering private coaching for those who desire more guidance.

Our relationships with death, dying and the end-of-life are very personal and unique to use all. We will all meet death differently and because of this it is vital that our collective perspectives allow for countless vantage points. For many who have received or been living with terminal diagnosis, the thought of taking autonomy over “our meeting death” is vitally important yet impossible because of limited legislation, misconceptions, and taboo around Medical Aid in Dying.

In this installment of The Death and Grief Talk Podcast with The Grave Woman, I had the honor of speaking with President and CEO of Compassion and Choices Kim Callinan. Compassion and Choices improves care, expands options and empowers everyone to chart their end-of-life journey. Compassion and Choices also provides resources that educate and empower those diagnosed with dementia, seeking or receiving palliative care support, and initiating end-of-life conversations with health care providers and much more.

According to the Compassion and Choices website Medical Aid in Dying is a trusted and time-tested medical practice that allows a terminally ill, mentally capable adult with a prognosis of six months or less to live to request from their doctor a prescription for medication they can decide to self-ingest to die peacefully in their sleep.  Medical aid in dying is sometimes incorrectly referred to as “assisted physician suicide,” “physician aid in dying,” “death with dignity,” and “euthanasia.”  Medical aid in dying is not assisted suicide, suicide, or euthanasia. These terms are misleading and factually incorrect.

To be eligible for aid-in-dying medication, an individual must meet all four criteria: 

An adult (aged 18 or older);   

Terminally ill with a prognosis of six months or less to live; 

Mentally capable of making their own healthcare decisions; and 

Able to self-ingest the medication.

In addition to the strict eligibility criteria these laws establish the following core safeguards:  The attending physician must inform the terminally ill adult requesting medical aid in dying about all other end-of-life care options. These other options include comfort care, hospice care, pain control and palliative care;  

The attending physician must inform the terminally ill adult requesting medical aid in dying that they can change their mind at any time; This patient right to change their mind includes deciding not to self-ingest the medication once they have obtained it;  

The attending physician must also offer the individual an opportunity to rescind their request.     

These core safeguards ensure that individual patient preferences, needs and values are honored, and guide all clinical decisions, including the decision to use medical aid in dying. Society benefits when medical aid in dying laws are implemented -- benefits that help everybody -- regardless of whether one decides to access the law:  

Improved conversations between doctors and patients;

Better use of hospice;

Better physician training in end-of-life care.

*** No information offered by Cait or myself should be a substitute or replacement for licensed medical or mental health care in any way. In addition, the information and techniques offered or suggested on this podcast do not constitute medical advice. Please seek medical advice from a qualified doctor in the case of serious illness***  

If you are in crisis and need immediate support please dial 988 to be connected with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.  

Cait’s personal experience with the death by suicide of her best friend, followed two months later by her grandfather’s death, is exactly what propelled her curiosity and focus into the unique and vast space of grief, death, and dying.  Through that journey, years after, Cait began volunteering with her local hospice and served in her community. During that time she chose to take an end-of-life doula course and continue expanding her theory. 

A passion for serving folks in the death space developed, deeply. By 2020, the pandemic forced the closure of her in-person business and her full attention turned to supporting folks in the virtual space, knowing that’s where many people go to access support + education.  Cait’s journey has led her into different avenues of death work from sitting at the bedside of those actively dying, to cleaning out homes after a death, to haircuts for those on hospice, to educating hospice teams on what death doulas are, to guiding folks on advance directive creation, to building a digital presence for death workers; truly, the space is vast. 

Currently, Cait offers digital resources that you can purchase and download on her resource site: deathbysuicideawarecare.com and free education via Instagram and Tik Tok. Join the list on the above website to be notified when the membership launches late summer 2022; the membership will equip folks of all ages with suicide awareness and prevention through a simple process so that they can support people in their circles of care.  

Cait is proficient and a member with the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance, proficient with the National Home Funeral Alliance, and is passionate about participating in continuing education on a vast array of topics, as death is a vast space.  

To learn more please visit https://www.deathbysuicideawarecare.com/

I recently had the honor of meeting and speaking with Dr. Chantrell Frazier about how she balanced showing up authentically in academia, navigating grief and loss while remaining motivated and inspired to complete her doctoral degree in biochemistry from Florida International University.  

(The following was written by Michelle Chernicoff)  Chantrell Frazier grew up a competitive athlete but, when it came to her education, the only person she was trying to beat was herself.  After earning her bachelor’s degree at an HBCU–Savannah State University –Chantrell looked for a place to combine her passion for forensics and biochemistry. She applied for the PhD program at FIU and found a place in the Furton Research Lab.  After her successful defense, she became the first Black woman at the university to earn her PhD in biochemistry. 

The Florida Education McKnight Fellow and Florida AGEP Pathways Alliance (FL-AGEP) scholar’s groundbreaking research has received departmental funding and funding from the Dubai Police. Her work has sparked collaborative efforts within the FIU research community, as her optimized protocols have been applied to examine human odor profiles to understanding the odors that attract mosquitos. 

Chantrell was encouraged by a mentor to take up space as a woman of color in the field. She hopes she is the first of many to successfully defend their degrees. Her volunteer work includes the FIU Student Access and Success Center (SASC), the City of Miami Gardens, and mentorship of students on the secondary and tertiary level to conduct research at FIU. Upon graduation, Chantrell will join the faculty at Framingham State University in Massachusetts as a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship in Chemistry and hopes to encourage more women of color to pursue STEM fields.  

By Michelle Chernicoff 

Communications Program Director Global Forensic and Justice Center 

https://commencement.fiu.edu/real-triumphs-graduates/people/spring-2022/chantrell-frazier.html

Jane Asher has always been a natural connector who has enjoyed a successful career in media and the music industry, most notably at major radio stations in San Diego and Santa Barbara, and Virgin Records based out of Chicago. Her book, The Next Room is a story transcending space and time about the relationship between mother and daughter that grew stronger through death. Written together, through interpretation with a psychic medium, The Next Room takes us on a daughter’s journey through learning eternal life lessons on forgiveness, grief, grace, gratitude, and the limitless love of all, God.

Website janeasherreaney.com

Email TheNextRoomWithJane@gmail.com

Facebook www.facebook.com/TheNextRoomwithJaneAsher/

Twitter www.twitter.com/JaneAsher

LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/janeasher/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/janeasherreaney/

Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nextroom/id1448791878

There is a great deal of spirituality and ritual that goes into working in death care for many practitioners. In this month's episode, death doula and educator Cait Maddan and I discuss our personal experiences, rituals and share ideas on the sacred nature of this work. 

In this month's podcast, my special guest LaToya Britt and I discuss our journeys through womanhood. We share everything from getting our cycles for the first time to navigating our journies as women while honoring the parallels between menstrual cycles, fertility, and self-care.    

To learn more about LaToya Britt and her business Skyn ATL: 

Visit her website www.skynatl.com   

Follow her on social media @skynatl   

Subscribe to her YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMZNdbaoPsSay1fKKaMm8pw

Happy New Year Everyone! I am so excited to have my first special guest, my sister De Anne Anthony. In this month's episode of Death at the movies we will be discussing the Disney movie SOUL.  Television and movies truly have the power to touch us all. Here we explore how death, dying and grief portrayed on the big and small screen's impact and connect us all.   Listen to the podcast on Anchor

The intention of this month's podcast is to encourage each and every one of you to start the year off with a positive mindset about yourself. YOU ARE HERE FOR A REASON! YOU HAVE A PURPOSE! YOU ARE IMPORTANT! 

Join the book and movie club here: https://www.thegravewoman.com/store/p26/The_Grave_Woman%27s_Book_%26_Movie_Club.html

The intention of this month’s podcast is to encourage and inspire all aspiring death care professionals to chase their dreams.

Media discussed in this month's episode. 

Idlewild 2006

Cast – Paula Patton, Andre 3000, Big Boi

Brief Synopsis: A reticent piano player, named Percival (André Benjamin), along with Rooster (Antwan A. Patton), his flamboyant lead performer and manager, struggle to keep their speakeasy, in the Prohibition-era South, out of the hands of gangsters who want to take it over.

Where Can You Watch: Hulu, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video

The Shack 2017

Cast- Octavia Spencer, Sam Worthington, Tim McGraw

Experience: Home

Brief Synopsis: After suffering a family tragedy, Mack Phillips spirals into a deep depression that causes him to question his innermost beliefs. Facing a crisis of faith, he receives a mysterious letter urging him to an abandoned shack in the Oregon wilderness. Despite his doubts, Mack journeys to the shack and encounters an enigmatic trio of strangers led by a woman named Papa. Through this meeting, Mack finds important truths that will transform his understanding of his tragedy and change his life forever.

Where Can You Watch: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube $3.99

Family Matters the Gun

Cast- Reginald Darrius McCray (Eddie Winslow), Kellie Shanygne Williams (Laura Winslow), Jaleel Williams (Steve Urkel & Stephon)

Brief Synopsis: A harrowing experience at school with a violent female gang has a shaken Laura wanting to buy a gun to defend herself and Urkel begging her to change her mind.

Where Can You Watch: Hulu, Amazon Prime App