Nov 25The Comfort of SnowA Play About A Discomfort in Death By Anne-Marie Keppel Characters Father Mother Sam Oak Sam pulls her Mercedes up in front of the cabin and kills the engine. She sits in the driveway listening to the car’s small sounds as the engine cools after the long trip. She hasn’t…Death18 min readDeath18 min read
Nov 24Looking GoodA Death-Positive Parody By Anne-Marie Keppel List of Characters Dug — Late thirties, family misfit Hilde — Early 90’s family matriarch Mentions of but not in the play Faux butler The Gentleman (Jack) Hilde’s children and family Vasper: Eldest male of family Brin: Eldest female of family Tom: Second oldest…Death24 min readDeath24 min read
Oct 13Let Me Be Dead at My FuneralWhen I am dead Honor me with a funeral Wear macabre gowns Darkened rags Sprinkle bread crumbs on my corpse For the ravens to cock their heads No celebration here Sweep not the fallen leaves Cheer nothing that looks miserable Shroud every photo in vignette Circle red the date Howl…Death1 min readDeath1 min read
Nov 25, 2022Reclaim DeathcareLet us Like foxes that know north Like ravens that call forth Like Starling murmuration Like fish in formation Like reindeer who cyclone Like elephants that know bone Come HomeDeath1 min readDeath1 min read
Nov 25, 2022Home FuneralTrending: Orchestrated Boutique floral Shrouded in imported silk Catered Timely Filmed Not trending: Third story walk up Chaos Stalks of weeds in bows Dirty dishes A coffin made of doors The body is dead In both The cry runs deep In both Surrounded by The Way It Is Let it be The Way It IsHome Funeral1 min readHome Funeral1 min read
Oct 31, 2022Death’s Invisible CloakDeath can be a cloak of hard and heavy lead. It can accumulate the Big Deaths and become the pain you trudge with, weighing on your spine, crumpling your legs and twisting your ankles — and the hardest part is that it is invisible Death can be a cloak of…Death2 min readDeath2 min read
Oct 14, 2022Metamorphosis without the mid-life crisis…To say someone is middle aged and going thru a midlife crisis at age 50 is rarely accurate — that would imply the person will live until age 100 which in the US, only .0173 humans do. Our “half-way point” is unknown but more likely if we were to use…Midlife4 min readMidlife4 min read
May 30, 2022Grief & Healing From Violent or Mass Death and How To Help- Beyond Ground ZeroA Community Deathcare Perspective This piece is intended for those who are one or more steps away from “ground zero” who have an interest in what to “do.” In my line of work, this is called community deathcare. When the news of a violent death or deaths drops us to…Grief8 min readGrief8 min read
Mar 13, 2022The Gifts of Growing Up in A Town Of Under 800My graduating class of 22 students was the largest in all of grades K-12. And when I say class, I mean the whole grade because there was only one class. People in town talked about how big it was. I had known the majority of my classmates since I was…Country7 min readCountry7 min read
Mar 8, 2022Can the Dead Hitch A Ride With You?The Fear of Body Transport and Care for the Dead Runs Deep I work with Vermont families regularly to assist them with the maze-work of Family Directed Funerals. …Death4 min readDeath4 min read
