Funeral Celebrant, Death Doula, & Home Funeral Guide
I’m Tawnya Musser (she/her), a Denver funeral celebrant, death doula, home funeral guide, and grief companion serving the Front Range. Thank you for visiting. Whether you are here out of curiosity of necessity, I welcome you. I know that you may be feeling overwhelmed if you are currently experiencing someone’s death or dying process.
Please call, text, or email me to schedule a free 20 minute consultation if you’d like to discuss what I have to offer in your time of need. You can learn more about me and Dear Departures here, and you can learn more about the full scope of my offerings here, but below is a quick look into how I may be of service. I support all people in all the truths and expressions of their identity, and I support all family structures as well.
A lot of people ask how I got into this work, and the short answer is that I’ve been to a lot of bad funerals in my life. I’ve also known a lot of people who’ve died without plans in place. As a funeral celebrant I work hard to make memorials more personal, and as a death doula and grief companion I hope to make end of life and grief journeys just a little bit easier for the folks I support. I craft custom ceremonies as a funeral officiant, I educate about folks’ rights to have home viewings, I help people plan for the end of life, and I companion those in mourning. I’ll walk alongside you to lighten the load, and brighten the road, where possible.
Home Funerals
Learn how to care for your person in the privacy and comfort of your own home or space. This may include bathing, dressing, anointing, shrouding, and being with the body for hours, or days.
Community deathcare, also known as “home funerals” are a reclamation in trusting that we can care for the dead ourselves in whatever ways feel meaningful and manageable to us. Let me be your home funeral guide.
“Nowadays we’re persuaded that it’s the presence of the body, not its absence that is most distressing, but in my experience…people are far more likely to regret not having seen the body than they are to wish they hadn’t.” -Kate Braestrup, in Grief to a Five-Year-Old.
Funeral Celebrant / Funeral Officiant
As a Life-Cycle Celebrant® I am a unique funeral officiant in that I am specially trained to craft personalized ceremonies and rituals. I specialize in memorials, celebrations-of-life, and living funeral ceremonies, as well as grief rituals.
I’m a wordsmith and storyteller who will ensure that your event is an authentic testament to who a person truly was, through intimate and thorough information gathering, and the writing and officiating of a custom ceremony. I tell stories with candor, humor, and grace. Let me be your funeral officiant.
“Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.” –Sharon Adler
Death Doula / End-of-Life Care & Planning
A death doula (also known as an end-of-life doula) provides holistic support to the dying and their circle as an added layer to hospice care.
My offerings include advance planning, care-calendar coordination, legacy projects, vigil planning, respite, advocacy, grief support, and more.
This non-medical emotional, physical, and spiritual support can be offered in-home and/or in a hospice or facility setting. Let me be your death doula.
“How we die, and how we care for dying people, and how we carry the dead: taken all together, this work makes our village life or breaks it.” -Stephen Jenkinson, Die Wise
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