Bluegrass Death Doula offers end-of-life planning, legacy project assistance, comfort therapy, living funerals, vigil services, home funeral workshops, green burial consultations, and celebrant services. To request a consultation, click here.
Basic Planning
In this form of planning, you will complete your Advanced Care Directives and decide what you want your funeral to look like. An Advance Care Directive is a legal document that explains how you want decisions about your personal welfare to be made if you cannot make the decisions yourself. BGDD will help guide you through each aspect of completing your directives while informing you of your rights and educating you about the options you have when you enter your end of life. Funeral options and body disposition will also be discussed. This form of preparation is a great way to open a conversation about death with your loved ones and is recommended to everyone.
$50 per person
End of Life Planning
End of Life Planning starts with advanced care directives and expands to prepare you and your loved ones with everything you need to know when the time comes. Everything from legacy projects, to how you want your clothing handled, to how to close a social media accounts after a loved one dies will be discussed and reviewed with you, your loved ones, and your proxy. Completing End of Life Planning with BGDD will result in a comprehensive guide that will allow your family to easily navigate the bureaucracy of death while giving both you and your loved ones the peace of mind that your last wishes are being followed. End of life planning will occur over the course of 3 sessions. The first session is used to develop your plan. The second session is used to fill in any blanks and finalize it. In the third session, you, your proxy, and loved ones will review your plan with BGDD. This form of preparation is recommended to those who have received a terminal diagnosis, are of advanced age, or to anyone who wants a complete plan in place at the time of their death.
$600 for 3 sessions and personalized guidebook
Legacy Projects
Legacy Projects can be many different things. They may be something small like a love letter to a spouse, or a video tutorial of how to make a favorite recipe and they may be something as complex as writing a book. In either case, a Legacy Project can be a valuable gift to give your loved ones. What may surprise you is how valuable this process can be for you.
Bluegrass Death Doula will guide you through selecting and creating the Legacy Project that is best for you and your family.
Planning session $100
*Additional costs may apply based on project needs
Home Funeral Workshops
A home funeral is the most beautiful thing in the world. Washing the bodies of our loved ones is ancient and sacred. It allows the bereaved an opportunity to honor their loved one and say goodbye. It also allows for a far more intimate viewing if the family so chooses.
Bluegrass Death Doula offers private and community Home Funeral Workshops which include what to expect when a person is actively dying, what to do at the time of death, and instruction on how to move, cleanse, and prepare a body for viewing and disposition.
Teaching home funeraling as a workshop allows Lauren Hunter-Smith to legally volunteer to be present at the time of death to assist the family.
$150 for private family workshop
*community workshops also available
Green Burial Consultation and Referral
When we die we can choose the beautiful gesture of replenishing the earth with our body. It is a gesture of gratitude and reverence. It is also a gesture that cannot be completed on Kentucky soil. Lauren Hunter-Smith is going to change that and Bluegrass Death Doula is the start of that mission. Until then, BGDD will help you select your preferred method of ecologically-friendly body disposition and provide you with referrals to obtain it.
*included in all planning services
Celebrant Services
For those who want a personalized and authentic funeral experience, Bluegrass Death Doula offers non-denominational celebrant services. As a celebrant, Lauren Hunter-Smith will interview friends and family to create a eulogy as unique as you are. Lauren will also coordinate those who also wish to speak, supporting them through the entire service as necessary. If you so choose, Lauren will deliver the eulogy on behalf of the family
Celebrant Services $250
Comfort Therapy
Lauren Hunter-Smith is certified to provide aromatherapy, sound therapy, personalized hypnosis, guided meditation, gentle massage, and hand-holding therapies. Each of these disciplines are proven to help ease stress, anxiety, depression, and pain. These therapies may also provide relief when other treatments have become unsuccessful.
Comfort therapy is available to anyone.
$60 per hour
*session includes any combination of techniques
Living Funerals
Final farewells often slip by without recognition, robbing the dying and their loved ones of the closure that truly saying goodbye can bring. We let our fear of death and sadness stand in the way of that one last ‘I love you’ so many of us wish we had… but there is another way.
A Living Funeral is essentially a declaration that it is time to say goodbye. They can be anything from one last poker night, to one last family dinner, to one last night at Studio 54. Bluegrass Death Doula will help you plan the event of a lifetime and while it may be sad at first, I promise you and your guests will end the night beaming.
$100 for planning session
*Additional costs may apply based on project
Vigil Services
A candle lit room filled with the gentle scents of the sea
Your favorite pillow and blanket
Your loved ones snuggled up against you
Music
Your favorite painting in view
Your pet at your feet
The rhythmic words of your favorite poem
The reassurance that your loved ones are prepared for this moment
The reassurance that when the moment comes, someone is there to care for your loved ones
Bluegrass Death Doula will help your loved ones prepare a vigil schedule to ensure you won't be alone, educate your loved ones about the time of death, and create a peaceful ambiance through the use of oxygen tank safe LED candles, aromatherapy, music, literature, and your favorite possessions (pillow, blanket, art, etc). If possible, Lauren Hunter-Smith will be present to assist the family at the time of death.
$500 for a planning, education, and in-home assistance
BGDD Complete Care
BGDD will be with your family, in-person, every step of the way when you enter your final days. End of life planning, legacy project assistance, comfort therapy sessions, vigil services, home funeral guidance, green burial consultation, memorial planning, and celebrant services are all included in BGDD Complete Care.
$3500, all-inclusive package
Bluegrass Death Doula