From Fear of Death to Funeral Director: Tasha Dugan’s Journey at Philadelphia’s Historic Laurel Hill Cemetery

What happens when a childhood fear of death transforms into a lifelong calling? Funeral director Tasha Dugan, who works at the historic Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, shares her powerful journey from being a frightened child at funerals to guiding families through grief, legacy, and healing. Her story shows how facing death directly can open doors to conscious living, spiritual growth, and death positivity.

Tasha was born in South Philadelphia and raised partly in North Carolina before returning at age seven. Inspired by her aunt, who worked for the medical examiner’s office, she grew fascinated with the stories behind every death. That curiosity led her to work as an autopsy technician at Temple Hospital and eventually to become a funeral director, a role she has embraced for more than 15 years. Today, she finds joy in helping families participate in rituals such as green burials and hands-on care, creating profound opportunities for healing and closure.

Her journey has also been deeply spiritual. Once afraid of dying, she now embraces it as part of life’s cycle and helps others do the same. She advocates for sustainable practices like aquamation and natural burial, honoring both loved ones and the earth. Her most meaningful moments come when she sees a grieving family move from pain to peace, knowing their loved one has been honored with compassion and dignity.

Laurel Hill itself has a rich history. Founded in 1836, it was a leader in America’s rural cemetery movement, designed by Scottish-born architect John Notman as both a burial ground and a landscaped arboretum along the Schuylkill River. Families once hired renowned sculptors to craft elaborate monuments, turning the site into one of Philadelphia’s first cultural attractions. Today, Laurel Hill East and West span 265 acres of gardens, art, and history, serving as both sacred ground and a public space for remembrance, reflection, and education.

https://laurelhillphl.com/

tdugan@laurelhillphl.com

Transcript

Tasha: [00:00:00] My favorite part of service in my family is when you can break that hard exterior from them. Let them be vulnerable when they walk away from that entire service or experience from us here at Laurel Hill, and they're smiling and they give you all those praise. That's my favorite part. When they're satisfied.

Jill: Welcome back to Seeing Death Clearly. I'm your host, Jill McClennen, a death doula and end of life coach. Here on my show, I have conversations with guests that explore the topics of death, dying, grief, and life itself. My goal is to create a space where you can challenge the ideas you might already have about these subjects.

I want to encourage you to open your mind and consider perspectives beyond what you may currently believe to be true. In this episode, I sit down with funeral director Tasha Dugan from the historic Laurel Hills Cemetery in Philadelphia. Tasha's Path has been deeply spiritual, once afraid of dying. She now embraces it as a [00:01:00] natural part of life and helps others do the same.

We also explore Laurel Hill's Rich History and how Tasha's personal journey has shaped the way she views death. Her story is a powerful reminder that facing mortality can open the door to living with greater compassion, presence, and purpose. Thank you for joining us for this conversation. Welcome, Tasha to the podcast.

I do apologize. My voice is a little crazy today, but I was so excited about this episode. That I was like, I can't cancel, I can't reschedule. We're just gonna do our best. We actually met in person once we did an event together at the Philadelphia Shaah Center about death and dying. Big surprise. Yeah, it was awesome, and I was so happy to talk to you, and I was like, all right, we only had a little bit of time to talk.

We need to do a podcast episode. Yeah. Just 

Tasha: tell me a little bit about you and who you are. Tasha, I am 52 years old. Wow, that sounds a little crazy to say. Once upon a time, I used to be 16. I am a Philly native. I was [00:02:00] born at the naval base in South Philly, and I was raised in North Carolina. My dad was a military person, so we traveled a lot.

At seven years old, I came back to Philly and this is where I spent the rest of my life. I have one daughter and four grandkids. My grandkids are about two months now, three months. My daughter had twins and they were born December 20th. The great thing in my life right now are those twins. I became a funeral director about 15 years ago.

I worked at Blue Cross as a claims examiner, and then one day I, I met a person and they did li um, livery, meaning that they, you know, went around and they picked up dead bodies. I found that interesting because I was into coroner, worked, my aunt worked for the medical examiner's office, and she would always come in with these cool stories.

So, lo and behold, I met [00:03:00] a person. Who picked up dead bodies for a living. I befriended him, and then I started to pick up bodies when we would go to the funeral home to drop those bodies off. To me it was like, there's a story behind that and I wanna dig deeper into that. At that time, we both decided that we wanted to be in the funeral business and we were going to become funeral directors.

I went, but he didn't. He opened up his own liberty business and I went into the funeral director. That started my journey into the funeral business. I've also worked at Temple Hospital for about 12 years, and there I was an autopsy technician. So again, working in the field of postmortem. I still kind of do that a bit.

So my world is pretty much. All about this death, this postmortem, this now is into the positive [00:04:00] movement of dying. That's pretty much a synopsis about me right now. 

Jill: It's so interesting. I am always fascinated by people that want to get into this work. I am doing a training in the fall through the New Jersey Funeral Directors Association to become a funeral celebrant, which I'm real excited about.

Not a funeral director, but I was talking to another death doula and she does it, and I was like, actually, I think I would really love that. So I'm gonna do the training in the fall. So I'm excited. I feel like it's a cool offering to add to what I already do, but there's definitely like part of me that finds.

The idea behind like auto autopsy is really interesting. I'm just not sure I could do it because even for me, like the thought of ever giving somebody a shot, putting something into human flesh, I guess I've cut myself enough as a chef. I'm not sure about that. How did you really find it when you started doing it?

Was it something that you were like, I [00:05:00] know exactly what I'm getting into, or was it totally different than what you expected? What was that like? 

Tasha: My story comes with a bunch of layers. It was always an interest. Like I had one level of interest. I had a great fear of death when I was younger, when I was coming into myself, and I'm, I'm thinking of maybe like six or seven years old.

My family would bring me to funerals. I don't know what's going on. I'm just a kid being raised as a Baptist, in a Baptist church. They teach us about Armageddon and things like that, so that kind of scared me. So it was like if I go to a funeral and I see that person, they don't look the same. I guess that was the start of me being the mortician with the restorative art type of thing.

But that will come later in life. What scared me was that first you're alive and then you're dead. I wanted to know. What, what is that? What, what is death? Is it something to be scared of? Like, [00:06:00] is, is, is this person really. Like, dad, can I feel anything? I don't know. I'm a, I'm a kid, so I'm thinking crazy thoughts.

It scared me to the point where even to go to sleep at night was scary because am I gonna wake up or am I gonna be like this person in this casket that I just saw? So I wouldn't go to sleep at night. My grandmother would have to try to coax me in. She would kind of hum me. Church pims just to soothe me, to get me to go to sleep.

Finally, I did, and then I'm great 'cause I woke up in the morning. Oh, not a scary thing. Okay, so, but now I need to know why. What is death? What is this? I need to get over myself with this death thing as I get older. This feeling never leaves me. Then I find out my aunt works for the city medical examiners.

She's close to death, so why not listen to her stories? So I'm hearing these stories, which is another layer that makes me who I am. [00:07:00] These, these death comes with stories. People's lives come with stories, and this is a part of something that a celebrant would do as well, is tell the story. My Aunt Joanna would come and tell me those stories and, and I'm like, I'm in just awe of why did this person die?

Then I became a big. A big aggressor in death certificates, wanting to know the cause of death. I think that's what got me into pathology. And then lo and behold, I get a job working at Temple University Hospital as an autopsy technician. This is the first piece of my puzzle, my first journey to death experience that I get to experience causes of death.

Why did this person die now? The body is an awesome thing. Anatomy, I probably skipped all over me going to school and doing all that, which I did, but now being able to work in an environment where I can actually touch a dead [00:08:00] body, try to face my fears about this death that I told you about when I was a kid.

Now I'm like facing it because now I'm here with a dead body and now I know why they died, which would be the cause of death. But then, now that I know that part, it brings me into a, this spiritual sense of things. Now, because this body was once alive, where did that part go? Which brings me back to my spiritual being where the Baptist teachings are, and me being in the funeral service now where I get to participate in others' rituals such as the Jewish faith and the Muslim faith.

When I visited the Shealah temple, which was one of the most great experience in my life, so. I was so thankful to be able to be there and Pat who was on, you know, listening to the podcast hears me. It was, it was through her that I was able to speak with Jude and experience [00:09:00] that. So I'm very appreciative.

So with that. Now I, I mix in my spiritualness with my funeral director and the experience. I'm on a spiritual journey right now, even with me being a funeral director. It's been an amazing spiritual and, uh, educational journey and I love it. I love being able to. Work with families and helping them to be more death positive, be more open to accepting the change, the transition that has happened.

I'm really big on green funerals as well. Mm-hmm. So this is the opportunity for the families to be able to come in and participate with the preparation of their loved ones after death. It just serves as a. Like a [00:10:00] final rights for them. It also helps them with closure and everything. Some of them really shy away from it, but when they actually allow themselves to do it, the healing in that is beautiful.

That's the part that I feel like I'm in here for now. I've taken care of the science curiosity of what I do, and now I think I've dove more into the spiritual part of what I do, and that's where I'm really finding my joy. 

Jill: I have a couple questions. Do all dead bodies get autopsies or is that only for certain cases?

What are they looking for when they do autopsies? That's something I've always been 

Tasha: curious about. Not all bodies get autopsy. If the person died in the hospital, that would be considered more of a medical, a medical autopsy, because there's two different ones. You have one that's done in the medical examiner's office.

Which would be a forensic autopsy, and the other one and the hospital would be the medical [00:11:00] autopsy. So only in cases. Where there is questionable cause would a medical examiner do so if a person died at at home and they weren't on any type of hospice care, or obviously if it was some kind of death that happened outside of the, the home, like on the street or something like that, any criminal investigation that needed to be happening, and sometimes not all of those get autopsy either.

Sometimes they'll do like a visual autopsy. Where, meaning there's no invasiveness of the body. They would just look over them in detail. It would be if the medical team had made some mistake, whether the aorta got ripped or something like that, or whether they wanted to find out where some internal bleeding or it had to be something that would be relevant and fall within a specific criteria of why a body should be autopsy, but Right.

[00:12:00] Not all bodies are autopsy. 

Jill: I was just always curious about that. I didn't think all of them were, but I was not positive. Yeah. And then, so now you are a funeral director, correct? Is that the correct term? And so what is the main job that a funeral director does? Like, do you still do the embalming and all that of the bodies?

Well, Greenbury, you don't do any of that anyway. Right? But like is the funeral director just the person that is kinda like the party planner and you run the event? Or how does that actually work? 

Tasha: I did have someone ask me that before. They call me an actor. You can do it Sasha, you are an actor. If they don't have someone to officiate their service, then we become an officiator.

So a funeral director's role pretty much. We won't call ourselves a counselor, but sometimes we might get that conversation. We'll start from the first call when the death actually happens. We're on call. Taking those calls to, to let us know where we need to go [00:13:00] pick up, making sure that the family knows that everything is in our care.

Right now, the body's in our care. We're getting that paperwork done, getting it signed, making arrangement. And then we go over into the, the treatment of the bodies. I'll do an embalming or prep the body for a private ID, dressing and casketing. Then follow the body to whatever burials or cremation ceremonies that they may have.

And then after that. It is just pretty much like a point of contact if the family needs to come in and make any other arrangements for their own care or another family member. They remember that relationship they created with you and they were going through that with their loved one. The funeral director here at Laurel Hill are.

Very in tune with our families and they remember us and they pretty much come back. So we've created lots of [00:14:00] relationships with them and that's what makes our staff special. 

Jill: Yeah, and actually I was just gonna ask some questions about Laurel Hill. I've been there a few times for different events. It is one of the most amazing cemeteries for sure in Philadelphia, but probably on the East coast.

It's got a great view, like it's just really beautiful. Can you just tell me a little bit about this cemetery and some of the events that you, it's really unusual. I've been to, I think, a circus there, like the night circus or something. You were probably at the same one that I went to. Oh, it was crazy.

People were on a tight rope between the mausoleums and women, like drilling batons that were on fire. It was nuts, but it was so cool. And I think I went to a concert there once, like a night concert. The candlelight. Yeah, I mean, it's just such a beautiful space to be in anyway, but the fact that you use it for cool things also I really enjoy.

So just tell me a little bit about that. 

Tasha: [00:15:00] So our cemetery, I try to get the dates and everything right. I believe our cemetery was built in 1839, and I think it was at Laurel Hill East was our first cemetery. Once that started to be a popular space, they wanted to create more land. So they came over here to Laurel Hill West, and that's when this one started.

I think this one was, and I'm getting the dates wrong, but that's okay. Pat or Nancy or whoever could tell 'em best, but they're the great storyteller of our cemetery. But I can speak more on the type of events that we have. So. Our friends, Laura Hill Friends actually promotes all of our programming events and everything.

And just this week, starting tomorrow from May 29th to June 1st, we're having our Philadelphia Death and Arts Festival, and that's a festival with three themes speaking on [00:16:00] aging, dying, and grieving. That's gonna be really fun. They're gonna have some workshops. Where they'll have a shrouding event and one of their field directors, pat, will be demonstrating that there's gonna be other programs happening during that week as well.

Other programs like the one that you talked about, like the circus, I love the evening. Tours and programs because it's like your experience in the cemetery at night and it's all a death positive experience. They've watched movies in the park and they would show, you know, like a vampire where that's a lot of 'em, and you'll just get your lawn chair and come out.

And you would be amazed at the crowds of people that are there. We've done walking tours in the daytime, walking tours in the evening. We have another event called Behind the Shroud where we open up both cemeteries as well as our crematory, the funeral [00:17:00] home and our pet acclamation center for tours where the people could come visit and see kind of like the inner workings and behind the scenes of what.

We all do here at the funeral home at the Crematory. Our Grounds Crew kind of give 'em an idea of what our everyday business is. We are very active to the public. We love for people to come and feel their curiosities with what we do. It's another death positive movement because everybody has to go one day.

So why be scared about it? If you have any interest, then come. We are here. To help educate you and show you the positive experience. It worked for me. I'm still that little girl that was scared to death, and I don't feel that scared anymore because it should be a positive experience. We live with this every day.

Jill: And I think I follow you on Instagram. I'm also on the newsletter, so I know when there's events [00:18:00] coming, for sure, especially if you live near Philly. But even if you're gonna be visiting Philadelphia anytime, you know, go to their Instagram, sign up for the newsletter. It was even a bat thing I wanted to take my kids to, but somebody got.

Sick and we couldn't go. It was like a nighttime, 

Tasha: that thing. He may have a a fun day. You said that, that just remind me. We have a fun day and it's really geared more for the kids. They'll have face paintings out there. I brought my grandkids out there one time, but we kind of got there a little late. The staff was great.

They still painted their faces and made 'em feel like they're a part of stuff, so, uh, my grandkids enjoyed it. 

Jill: Yeah, it's a really cool spot. Well, you mentioned the pet acclamation. I think we actually did talk about this a little bit in person. That acclamation is not legal yet in Pennsylvania. That's correct.

Not legal. Is, is there a working to get it legalized in Pennsylvania? Because I'm more on Jersey. Even though I do work in Philly sometimes, are they working towards getting that legalized in Pennsylvania? Yes, we 

Tasha: are working towards getting that legal. We have [00:19:00] a representative that advocates for us. Our president, Nancy Goldenberg.

She works closely. With our advocate to make sure that we keep things relevant. There was a bill that was passed in the house and they are working on trying to make sure that we can get it legalized, hopefully this year. So it's been circulating for a few years. We are in the sixth or the seventh year, so we're hoping that something catches on.

It's unfortunate that we're going through this, however, Maryland just got theirs passed, so it's become legal in Maryland. It's be, it's legal and, and I believe it was Washington. They have a listing of all the states who made it legal. We're not gonna worry about them. We just wanna worry about Pennsylvania.

We're working on it, and hopefully this will be the year that it goes through. 

Jill: Yeah. 'cause I think that's a great option. I mean, again, you, I'm sure know way more about it than I do, but I know I've heard that it's better for the environment than traditional [00:20:00] cremation Is, is the process different for pets than it would be for a human?

Or is it the same process? I 

Tasha: believe there will be a different machine. Okay. I haven't seen one of those machines yet, but I did see a copy of one when I went to a convention, but that was years ago. So they probably soared way past. What a current one would look like. Now, I believe the process will be the same to break a human body down as it would the animal, but they will have two separate systems doing so because obviously you don't wanna use the same machine that you did for animals.

The chemical process will probably be. 

Jill: Can you tell us a little bit about the chemical process? 'cause I'm super curious watching Breaking Bad. In one of the episodes they used something to break down a body in a toe or something insane, right? So like that in my head is the process, and I'm sure that's not really how it works.

But yeah, that, that, I'm [00:21:00] curious 

Tasha: and I wish I would be able to be more versed into telling you that part, but the person who actually does that, his name is Eric Erbe. He works in our affirmation. He knows it well, and he would be able to like say word for word exact whatever chemicals are being used. And I've actually gone to one of those tours with him.

I wouldn't be able to tell you all the chemicals used. To actually break it down. I'm sorry for that part. It's okay. Yeah. 

Jill: I 

Tasha: mean, 

Jill: you can't know everything, right? Like as legisl as we want to know everything. Do you know what happens though to the liquid waste? Where does that go? 

Tasha: So because we are big on sustainability, the liquid waste that comes from that, we actually use it.

To water our grounds and help to restore everything. So every little bit of use we can get out of it. We do so, and that's what helps to keep our grounds pristine. 

Jill: Oh, I love it so [00:22:00] much. I mean, it's fertilizer, right? That's the cool thing down the bodies and then use it to give back to earth and grow new things.

I love that. Exactly. You do have a green burial section now in Laurel Hill, right? Yes. 'cause it's spread throughout the cemetery. 

Tasha: So they are in sections. We have three green burial sections. We have one at Laurel Hill East and two here at Laurel Hill West. Laurel Hill East has it in one section of Long Ridge Avenue, Laurel Hill West.

We have one here, which is our, they consider it to be like the Golden, that's the top of the line area right there. So that's here at West and just across the street. At our Pines terrace is the baller green section. We have three sections and they're all broken down into three areas within the cemetery.

Jill: Now the cemetery is very old. Do you still have space for people? Do people still buy plots? What's [00:23:00] that situation look like? 

Tasha: There's not much space left in Laurel Hill West. However, those families that did pre-planning from years ago, their spots are still open. And waiting for when they're ready to be laid to rest.

Here at West, we do have spaces, and I really can't quote the amount of space that we have left. Because I'm not the cemetery rep and they have the numbers on that, but when I listen to them, I do hear that we still have space though. We're running like for our green burial here at West, all the spaces are sold out.

That's why we have to cultivate more areas to be able to open up more spaces in Ball Green. We have enough space over there. They say it might be a hundred, but. There are spaces there throughout the cemetery for other traditional burials. [00:24:00] There is space here at West and at the Pines Terrace. That's why we are discussing other options for people.

With, you know, with like Aquaman and, and cremations and green burials where you don't have to worry about burying steel caskets and where you know you're not gonna have any space because that space is taken up by the things that are impeding the ground. But for now, we're pretty good. We're pretty good with space 

Jill: because Yeah, I kind of wonder about that too, like what eventually will happen when we run outta space for cemeteries.

Exactly. Right around us. It's gonna probably happen sooner than some other areas of the country because, you know, New Jersey, Philadelphia area, we're pretty developed. Like there's not a lot of land to just be like, oh, it's fine. We'll just take this other chunk of land. Like, no, we don't. Don't really have that, 

Tasha: which is great for innovation and new ideas and that's [00:25:00] why in the generation now we're coming up with new ideas that the public asks for.

It makes it easier and answers the questions on. What happens when the space does run out? So we keep our eyes open and our ears to the ground on innovation and what to do next, because that's the business we're in. 

Jill: Oh, that's true. Is there any new innovations that you've heard of that are like. Because we talked about green burial, we talked about acclamation, human composting.

You know, people have been talking about, you know, is there any word on that maybe for Pennsylvania, having that become legalized? 

Tasha: So that one, we've been talking about it here at Laurel Hill. We've had a couple of meetings. With some people. We've even had conversation with Katrina Spade from Seattle right now with our legislation and what's going on.

That's kind of like on the the back burner. So we just wanna try to push for what we know [00:26:00] we can get a win on, which is the acclamation for NOR. There's still some things that they're working out specific to the soiling. Once they work that out, maybe that might be our new thing. 

Jill: I think that's a cool option.

I would. Like to be composted. 

Tasha: Yeah. It's funny because I had a conversation with my dad, and my dad said if he wasn't cremated then he would be a compost. And I'm like, what? And he's in Seattle so he can do it. 

Jill: Ah, yes he can. And I guess there's people that fly their body to Seattle to be 

Tasha: composted. Matter of fact, we had a case at one point where.

We had a family who wanted to be composted, so we had a service for them and everything. The service was beautiful, and then we prepared their body to be shipped to Seattle where they were composted. Obviously, we didn't find out the final end of [00:27:00] that story, but the simple fact that we had someone who actually went to have that procedure done was like, wow.

Yeah. Amazing. 

Jill: That is really neat. When you work with families, you know, what's your favorite part about working with people? Because this is a really sensitive time. As okay as I am with death when it's me and it's somebody that I'm close to, like it's sensitive. Right. So what's your favorite part? About working with families.

Tasha: My favorite part, and I'm gonna go with was fresh because I just had a family today and they were a Hindu family. First of all. Like you said, it's a sensitive time. The families wanna make sure that everything goes right. They, in their mind, they want. To make sure that they are honoring their loved one in the most compassionate way, and who else could be more compassionate than themselves because they knew them the best.

So they're looking at you and they're hoping that [00:28:00] you get exactly what they're thinking about. The pressure is on us to make sure that this happens, but we do it so naturally that. They can't be disappointed. When this family came to me, there was one thing that she heard that threw her off, and maybe it was 'cause I wasn't able to accommodate at that time, but when I heard that hurt behind her.

I decided I'm gonna do exactly what she wants, so I put my niece aside to make sure that she was taken care of, that she got exactly what she wanted, and just with that one gesture when she came through those doors, because this was a matter of time because everybody else left for work. We got off early that day, but she experienced the death of her husband and she wanted to make sure that he got his ritual right.

They were Hindu family. And I stayed. I stayed, you know, that was a sacrifice that [00:29:00] I made. But I heard that hurting her voice and I wanted to be there for her. It hurts me to see that she's hurt and I want her to smile, so I need to do what I need to do to make her smile. So when she came through that door that evening, they said, oh, this is my mom.

So I went over to her before they said anything else, and I gave her a hug. That melted her. She was done, and from there she smiled, she cried. My favorite part of service in my family is when you can break that hard exterior from them because they, they just allowed them, let them be vulnerable. To this moment, I want to take away all of her burden so that she will be able to.

Enjoy the service. Remembering her husband that she's getting everything that she wants, she's honoring him the way that she wants, and I'm doing that [00:30:00] for her when they walk away from that entire service or experience from us here at Laurel Hill, and they're smiling and they give you all those praises.

That's my favorite part. When they're satisfied. I know with 

Jill: Hindus and with Buddhists and with Muslim families and with Jewish families, there's a lot of ritual that goes with the end of life that can be difficult to accommodate in a traditional American style funeral celebration. From my experience with Shealah Center.

You're supposed to have somebody sit with the body for three days. Right. And Laurel Hill's one of the few places that will allow people to come in and sit and they'll bring the body out so that we could sit. Yes. You know, trying to get somebody there 24 hours a day would be a little hard anyway, just in general because of life now.

Right. But that must be really an interesting part of your job too. Navigating all of the different. [00:31:00] Religious beliefs that aren't your own and trying to learn and honor them. That's part of what I actually love about it, though. I love learning about. 

Tasha: Yeah. And that was me, which is the reason why I stayed because I, I knew it was a holiday weekend.

Everybody wanted to leave, but I knew she was experienced something that was, that was very, you know, deep for her. And who am I not to allow her to grieve the way she wants? So I decided to take that burden on, make sure that I stayed for her, make sure that she got the attention that she needed for it, and I was also learning at the same time.

And again, because it was Hindu service and. I, I'm big on spirituality. I even showed her this little tattoo that I have with the, um, on there. It just happened to me. She said, oh my God. So I kind of, kind of tied me into it. So that made me feel good. She invited me over to eat, eat. [00:32:00] Nice. Oh yes. When you're able to give the families exactly what they need, and you get that moment of smile from them during a time where.

The grieving is so deep for them where you can help them through that process. That's my reward. It's such 

Jill: an intimate, beautiful space. I feel like it's a privilege when people invite me into their life, into their family when it's end of life, because it's. I don't know. I mean, to me, I'm not looking forward to dying, but also it is one of the most interesting experiences that you're ever gonna have in your lifetime.

Right, exactly. You're only gonna do it once. Maybe, I guess some people have near death experiences, but it's just kind of, I don't, even with childbirth, you know, I think about like childbirth. I wanted to experience all of it because I was like, this is such an unusual experience. You don't do this every day.

Exactly. I wanna feel it all, and I did, and so I'm [00:33:00] hoping. When I do meet my end, hopefully it'll be a ways from now, but then I'll still meet it with the same curiosity. But that's part of why I like Buddhism, and that's part of why I gravitated towards Shambala Center because some of what we talk about is how our meditation practice is really to help prepare us for death.

Yes. So that we can kind of be fully present for that moment. I don't know if I believe in reincarnation or not. On the fence about all the afterlife beliefs, but that we can reincarnate to our best version, burn off some of our bad karma in that moment of death. Right. Which I just think is interesting.

Tasha: And it's funny that you say that because when Pat had come to me, when Jude had came to her, because Pat usually does those projects with them, and this year she offered me up. It wasn't something that I shied away from because Patty knew I had a great interest in the tradition in the [00:34:00] meditation part of everything.

I was only supposed to come to that Shealah for the half hour that I was up, but that was an opportunity for me to find out about the meditation part of everything and be around the surrounding and get a feel of something I had great interest in. And. The entire day, obviously I stayed. I loved it. And I want to know more about the meditation status because like I told you, I'm still on my spiritual journey, even as a funeral director, even through me helping others to accept what's happening to their loved ones.

I also know that I'm gonna have my day two and I need to be, you know, ready for that. At this point of me helping others, I also wanna feel ready myself, because I'm still trying to, so this fear that I have, I feel like the [00:35:00] meditation practices that Shambal offers will help me into that. So I guess I'm, I'm, I'm kind, you know, hinting to, I need to make more visits to you guys.

So I can integrate myself into this. I really would like to start that process for me to be more ready for my own. 

Jill: You should definitely come visit us again. 'cause I love it there. And I have learned just so much about myself and about really like. Again, I'm more spiritual. I'm not necessarily that I go down any one path, but Buddhism seems to be the one that I gravitate towards the most as far as the teachings and the practices.

So you should definitely come back and visit us. And it's funny because I was so looking forward to meeting Pat. I've never met Pat. We were at an event once and we kinda like saw each other in the distance. But I did say hi 'cause I'm kind of shy and I was really looking forward to meeting her. But then when you got there and we started talking, I was like, see, everything happens for a [00:36:00] reason.

I was so happy to meet you and we chatted and I just really enjoyed spending time talking with you. And I'll meet Pat one day in person. We'll make that happen. You'll meet her. You'll meet her. She hears you talking now. Bye, pat. I. Love what you do over at Laurel Hill and it's, thank you. Such a cool place and I really am so happy that you came on today.

I'm gonna give you a few minutes 'cause we are getting close to our time to talk about yourself if you want to, where people can find you, where people can find more information about Laurel Hill. Anything that you wanna share. 

Tasha: I guess I'll just promote the Philadelphia Death and Arts Festival a little bit more.

Let people know when it is, what time it's going to be and what to expect. It starts tomorrow, the 29th, and it ends June 1st. They're gonna have lots of good workshops, performances, I think. Did someone say it was going to be between Laurel [00:37:00] Hill, east and West? You can get on our website. To find out the address information if you wanna buy tickets or anything like that.

That's all on the website. If you want to contact me in particular to do any type of pre-planning or go on a tour the funeral home and kind of see what we doing here behind the scenes. You could just also see me on the website or email me at TD Dugan at Laurel Hill. hl.com. 

Jill: I'll put a link in there so people can actually click the link and find your email.

Tasha: So we're very open to people just coming in, chatting. If you have any questions about preparing for your own death, doing pre-planning, the episodes, or something like how we did at Shambal preparing questions, kind of get your folder together so you know what steps to take, or even if you're preparing it for.

Other [00:38:00] family members like your mom, your dad, stuff like that. Feel free to give us a call. We'll go through the different options. You might wanna talk about doing insurances, assignments and things like that. All sort of options to prepare for a positive death experience. 

Jill: That's what we want, right? Is a positive death experience.

I heard somebody say, oh my God, what? I actually wrote it down. She said, rather than even calling it a death positive experience, we want to have people have a well supported death. And I liked that term too, right? Like well supported. 

Tasha: Yes. Support. Yes. Yeah. Right. Because that's 

Jill: what we're hoping for for people, is it's never gonna be fun, right?

I mean, death is not fun, but it can be better than it is. And that's kind of the death positive thing. But I liked that well-supported death. And actually, I do have a question too about the Philly. What is it? Arts and death. This is the first time you're doing it, correct? 

Tasha: This [00:39:00] is the first time we're doing it.

Are you gonna be doing 'em again in the future? So what I heard someone say is that we're slotted to do it every other year. Okay? So we're going to be doing it in the future, probably not next year, 'cause this is the first year it's happening, but the year after that. But what we do every year is something called the Market of the Macab.

Oh my God. Oh my God. People from all over were coming. The only reason why I I, I speak on it so highly right now because. Last year I actually, you know, was there at one of our tables. We were promoting the funeral home, and our friends, well, Laurel Hill friends, and I wanted to leave the table. Because it was so many people out there, so many vendors, so much information out there.

I needed to see where everyone was. That cemetery was just full. And the people that were coming in, the public that was coming in, [00:40:00] they had lines all the way to the gas station down there. The lines were so long for people to try it again, and now I know. How this event was so coveted by the public, whether they're in Philadelphia, Jersey, New York, people were coming from all over.

That event is one of the great ones too, and that's done every year. 

Jill: Yeah, I actually tried to get into that event one year with my t-shirts. Maybe I'll try again this year. You, you should. All my death positive t-shirts. Yes, you should because it, it's a cool event. Like I said, your cemetery is the best.

You do some really awesome stuff and this was amazing. I was really looking forward to this. I'm sorry it was coughing a little bit throughout. I wasn't even thinking about that, Jill. No, it is what it is. But thank you so much, Tasha. This was really awesome. 

Tasha: Thank you. I enjoyed myself and thank you for having me.

I'll show up again later on if you want. I have so much to say. I'm always available if we could do it again. Thank you so much for handing me [00:41:00] 

Jill: in my next episode, author Cyra Sweet. Dimitri shares her story of loss. Healing and the power of language writing became a lifeline for her after the death of her brother David, by suicide when she was just 16.

Cyra opens up about the trauma of witnessing his final moments, the lifelong process of grief, and the ways poetry helped her transform pain into meaning. She describes how journaling, paying attention to small daily beauties. And creative expression became essential practices for navigating, loss and reconnecting with joy.

This conversation explores grief, legacy, and end of life healing, and how poetry can open pathways to deeper understanding and conscious living even after profound loss. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend or family member who might find it interesting. Your support in spreading the podcast is greatly appreciated.

Please consider subscribing on your favorite podcast platform and leaving a five star review. [00:42:00] Your positive feedback helps recommend the podcast to others. The podcast also offers a paid subscription feature that allows you to financially support the show. Your contribution will help keep the podcast advertisement free, whether your donation is large or small, every amount.

Is valuable. I sincerely appreciate all of you for listening to the show and supporting me in any way you can. You can find a link in the show notes to subscribe to the paid monthly subscription as well as a link to my Venmo if you prefer to make a one-time contribution. Thank you and I look forward to seeing you in next week's episode of Seeing Death.

Clearly.