What Is An In-Home Funeral?

Personal funeral, home death care, or in-home funerals all express the process of keeping a deceased body at home for some time (a few hours to a few days) rather than having them carried quickly after they have taken their last breath—is legal in all states.

End-of-Life Practitioners and Death doulas who are often trained to help families navigate the end-of-life burial/funeral decisions, helping to create a sacred ceremony honoring the dead, and assist families in saying goodbye.

Are you aware that you can deny embalming and we can personally transport a loved one’s body to their final place of rest such as a cemetery, crematorium, and even, in some cases, a home burial?

Families are learning to navigate these delicate undertakings with help from End-of-Life Practitioners have extensive training focused on helping families navigate the end-of-life burial/funeral decisions, help create a sacred ceremony honoring the dead, assisting families in saying good-bye, and many other skills focused on supporting the dying and their families.

Up until the Civil War, most people died at home, surrounded by family and home funerals were the standard of care. However, the desire to preserve soldiers' bodies for transporting their remains produced the need for embalming which then became more widespread. This era of history also gave birth to the use of funeral homes and hospitals, which further created a barrier between the living and the dead. This was the point in American History when we began to lose the intimacy with death that continues today in our caring for our dead.

Touching, loving, cleansing, oiling, and being with our dead can be a very comforting experience that provides an opportunity for families to take time in saying good-bye and begin the unfathomable assimilation of—DEATH.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if we can provide you with any additional information on home death care, personal funeral, or in-home funerals. These services are offered for those who may wish to consider these options for end-of-life care.