Bringing Death Home: The Healing Power of Home Funerals

Bringing Death Home: The Healing Power of Home Funerals

What can we learn from those who have battled addiction, grief and loss side by side? This conversation follows that thread by looking straight at death and asking how bringing it back home might actually help people heal. Host Gris Alves chats with funeral director and friend Glenda Villegas, whose work centres on home and family-directed funerals. The tone stays warm, sometimes gently funny, even as they talk about strokes, brain tumours and deep heartbreak.

She shares a vivid story of a wife lovingly washing her husband’s body and even placing his dog beside him so “the dog can grieve and move forward.” From there, the pair get very practical: how to use dry ice, why airflow matters, how long you can keep a body at home, and why “the time for emergencies has gone when they draw their last breath.” They also talk frankly about hospice – what it actually does, why so many people fear it, and how it can make home deaths smoother for families.

If you’re in recovery, supporting ageing parents, or simply trying to live more consciously, you’ll hear a fresh way of relating to death that feels strangely comforting. Glenda explains how she moved from the traditional “death industry” into home funerals after seeing how sales pressure clashes with grief. Legalities come up too: death certificates, permits, the eight-day clock in California, and the surprising right to transport a loved one’s body yourself.

Alongside all the logistics runs a clear message: planning ahead and reclaiming ritual gives families time, agency and space to grieve. As Glenda says, her mission is “to give people the freedom to do it their way.” If death is inevitable, might bringing it home be one of the most healing things you’ll ever do?