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buried only a few feet from the ground, where soils
absorb remains more easily.
“It just sort of made sense, that when I come to the end
of my life to not fill my body with chemicals and place
me in a cement kind of tube.”
She took a virtual death midwifery course late last year
from Cassandra Yonder, a national expert in the
subject. Cavers is now part of Canada’s growing
deathcare community, advocating for organic
decomposition.
Those trained in the practice learn to walk with people
as they prepare to die. They answer questions from the
person nearing their death and serve as a support to
their family. They supply comfort in a role historically
held by religious ministers.
While funeral homes are helpful, they “won’t cover your
soul or your spirit-care, your mind, and some of the
feelings that might be coming across when you’re
Milena King holds her father’s hat at her home in Brandon.
Her father's funeral revolved around his favourite things, scared,” she said.
including his favourite music and foods. At 44, Cavers is already planning her own burial.
Should she die at a hospital, she wants her loved ones
picking up her body instead of a mortician. She wants
In a society apprehensive about discussing mortality, to be brought home for a few days, where people can
Cavers found the conversations frank, the participants come pay their respects.
willing. Cavers wants a natural burial at her farm. If it isn’t
“I think trusting that if you make space for something possible, she would like her family digging her plot at
like this, talking about death in a safe way that isn’t the local cemetery.
necessarily at a funeral when you’re very emotional, is “When you live well, you have to die well.”
a welcome concept.” ———
Owner of an ethical-food farm in Pilot Mound, Cavers Decades ago, the vast majority of funerals looked the
is a trained death midwife or “death doula”. She’s same.
equipped to assist in a person’s last days, much the Buchanan describes them as “cookie-cutter.”
same way a midwife helps a mother through the “You go to the church, you sing two hymns, you go to
birthing process. the cemetery, you bury the casket, you go to the church
While others trained in deathcare seek an income, for the lunch,” he said. “The chance of that happening
Cavers envisions her role as an educator. now is 15 per cent.”
People are “death-phobic,” she said. “We don’t talk Cremations have become the norm. Buchanan
about it or we even don’t mourn properly as a society estimates 85 per cent of their dispositions involve
anymore.” cremated remains.
It wasn’t always like this. A century ago when life There are numerous reasons for the shift. People are
expectancies were lower than 50 years of age, death increasingly turning away from faith traditions, which
was expected, almost normalized. Now, professionals long preferred casket burials. Consumers are
handle nearly all matters regarding end of life. increasingly cost-conscious and thus find cremations
“Here we are, all these years later, scared of the dead preferable. And a greater prominence has been placed
and scared to die and nobody’s talking about it,” Cavers on individualizing services representative of the person
said. they’re honouring.
Her interest in death was piqued when she attended a At Brockie Donovan, 70 per cent of interments are
friend’s workshop on green burials. cremations.
She was intrigued about being earth-friendly, even in When co-owner Wade Lumbard started in the funeral
death. Bodies are not preserved with embalming business in the late 1990s, the figure was closer to 40
chemicals, caskets are biodegradable and the body is per cent cremations and 60 per cent casket burials. The

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