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• • To facilitate authentic conversations about death and dying

• • To empower the living to create end-of-life plans that reflect their values and beliefs

• • To build a death-aware community of support and resources for the living, dying, and bereaved

• • To companion the dying and their families through end-of-life transitions

Mission

About

Jennifer Jurlando is a death educator, death doula, grief support group facilitator, and ritual facilitator. She has led grief support groups for preschoolers, in assisted living communities, and for grievers who have experienced perinatal loss. Jennifer is an adjunct instructor in VCU’s Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling program and has led death and grief-themed educational events for Chesterfield County Libraries, University of Richmond, the Attorney General's TRIAD Conference, and at numerous other community gatherings.
Her writing on loss, survival, and worth can be found on her Patreon. Her work has also been published online at RVAMAG and Life in 10 Minutes and in the anthologies, Unspoken: Writers on Infertility, Miscarriage, and Stillbirth, and Nine Lives: A Life in Ten Minutes Anthology.
She believes that authentic conversations about death make it possible to live life more fully.
Jennifer has a years-long ancestral veneration practice, facilitates monthly self-care ritual groups, and is driven to help people plan for the sacred space linking the end of life, death’s arrival, and body blessing rituals.

Events

Spring 2026: Intro to End-of-Life and Legacy Planning, University of Richmond Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
This course will focus on planning for the end of life. Discussions in two sessions will focus on current trends in end-of-life care, legal considerations, communication of wishes, and ritual planning. Participants will discuss their desires for the end of their lives, their hopes about their legacy, and ways of ensuring their desires are met. Led by a local death educator and doula, the group will be conversational and driven by participant areas of interest and need. Topics to include green burial, advanced planning, home funerals, death doulas, hospice, and creation of legacy projects.

April 4, 2026: Reclaiming Death Rites: End-of-Life Ritual Planning
Join Jennifer Jurlando of Thistle Community Death Care for a workshop on death, dying, and end-of-life ritual planning, tailored to the Pagan community. Participants will discuss our standing cultural beliefs about death and our community’s perception of a “good death.” Trends in burial and ritual in the Pagan community, as well as the importance of communicating wishes will be discussed.

Spring 2026: Chesterfield County Library Death Awareness Series
Chesterfield County will host three death-focused workshops in Spring 2026. More details to follow but mark your calendars for the following dates:
March 12- Death Cafe
April 9- Green Burial, Reclaiming Death Ritual
May 14 - Death Doulas

Past Events

Shrouding Workshops
North Courthouse Library 2025-2026, Chesterfield, VA
Shrouding workshops have focused on building and practicing use of shrouds that can be made inexpensively and tailored to the desires and personality of the deceased. Participants are welcome to bring a sewing machine, ideas, experience, and a collaborative attitude.

November 2025: Death Fest
Death Fest is an annual educational gathering at the green cemetery in Earlysville, Virginia. The event builds community around natural burial and empowers people to reclaim traditional death practices. This year, Jennifer Jurlando facilitated a mock home funeral with the shrouding team from Twin Oaks. This workshop focused on methods of body care, personalization of rituals, and special considerations for people who want to have home funerals. Flowers provided by Swann's End.

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October 2025: Death, Yoga, Self Love

Participants explore the meaning of their own mortality & cultivate self-love through movement, meditation & writing practice. A deeply intentional slow flow yoga practice focused on connecting with breath and the experience of living fully. A death meditation and creation of a blessing for the self follow.

November 2025: Hallowed Homecoming
Prince William Forest Park, Triangle, VA
Hallowed Homecoming is an annual Pagan Samhain retreat. The 2025 theme was Embracing the Darkness.
Jennifer Jurlando led a workshop on focused on creating end-of-life rituals aligned with the belief systems of individuals outside of standard American belief systems. Focus was on contemplation of death, planning rites, and communication of end-of-life wishes.

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November 2025: Virginia Anatomical Donation Information Session
Holistic Life Center, 1011 E Main Street, Richmond, VA
Join the director of Virginia State Anatomical Program, Raymond Rhodes, and area end-of-life doulas for a discussion about anatomical donation in Virginia. The hour-long presentation will be followed by open conversation on the topic. Virtual attendance is an option.

Red Quill Law Funeral Resources

Virginia Funeral Resources

Eco-Conscious End of Life Planner
Free with code RVAhomefuneral

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