COBDEN — Julie Keon is filling a gap in the Ottawa valley and surrounding area for those who want to prepare for and explore end-of-life options. As a Life-Cycle Celebrant (fun-erals), Death Educator and Home Funeral Guide, Ms.Keon wishes to empower, educate and support individuals and families in considering how they might live more fully by preparing for their inevitable endings.
After an eight month intensive course (approximately 300 hours) through the BEyond Yonder Virtual School for Community Deathcare in Canada, Ms. Keon has honed the skills required in reclaiming community-based death care. She is part of a growing trend and sees a great need in her community. The Community Deathcare movement “strives to reclaim a participatory relationship with death and honouring death as an important part of life. Even though there tends to be many challenging and painful feelings associated with dying and deathcare, there are also many rewards and benefits to engagement.” (from the Community Deathcare in Canada website).
“Ready Or Not!~ Preparing for the Inevitable is a course that I have has spent countless hours researching, contemplating and developing to offer something practical for my fellow mortals to prepare for their own deaths,” Ms. Keon explained, adding, “We assume that all that is needed is a Will (although this is a part of the class) but there is so much more to know and think about.”
This course will have participants actively exploring the practical preparations of death but also the emotional aspects that we are so masterful in denying. There will be exercises and homework to be completed each week so that by the end of the course, each participant will have completed their own “Ready or Not” death guide. This will be a gift to their family when their time comes.
Guest speakers, meaningful conversations, up-to-date video clips and resources will all be a part of this unique and timely course. It is a very personal course which means that participants attend in preparation for their own deaths while they are still healthy and able to do so, Ms. Keon explained. The goal is to get this done long before you are actually dying. Death comes suddenly sometimes so assuming there will be time “to get your affairs in order” is nothing more than wishful thinking. And once finished, participants can relax into living fully knowing the end is looked after.
This course will take place over five consecutive evenings from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Whitewater-Bromley Community Health Centre in Cobden located at 70 Main Street. The first session will take place five consecutive Tuesdays– Feb. 21st, Feb. 28, March 7, March 14 and March 21.
The second session will follow on five consecutive Tuesdays — April 25, May 2, May 9, May 16 and May 23. For more information, including the cost of the course, please contact Ms. Keon at 613-646-9912, [email protected] or visit her website at www.juliekeon.com
