Educating and empowering families, individuals and communities in preparing and caring for their own after death.

For untold generations when someone died their family and friends lovingly cared for, grieved over, and tended to their bodies.  For the last 150 years that sacred ritual has been turned over to the commercial funeral industry and we’ve lost the intimacy, opportunity and privilege of caring for our own.  In the process we’ve largely lost our familiarity with and connection to this profound aspect of life.  Walking Each Other Home Madison is helping to bring that sacred ritual back, to sanctify and uphold this ancient tradition.  We can help you do so as well.

In Wisconsin family members have a legal right and moral prerogative to care for their deceased.  More so, prior to their death, a person can legally designate a non-family member to care for them after death.  Our group offers consultation, education, training and provisions to enable individuals and families to care for their loved one at home after they’ve died, i.e. to have a home funeral.  This could include teaching them how to cleanse and prepare the body, how to cool the body and keep it cool, how to create a loving and intimate space for them so that family and friends can come, grieve, and say goodbye, how to safely handle the body and transport it to the cemetery or crematorium, or finally, how to fill out the obligatory forms.

In addition to teaching people how to care for their own, for a small fee we can also provide a kit that contains all of the supplies that someone might need for safe and effective body care and cooling.

In keeping with our broader mission, every month or two we also offer larger public events related to death and dying, and after death care.  One may be coming up soon.