In This Issue

The Education Committee is busy developing home

funeral and green burial presentations for use by members of the Speakers Bureau.

March 2013

Welcome to the National Home Funeral Alliance newsletter. We hope you enjoy our stories and keeping up to date on all the great work that alliance members are doing across the continent. Please send your stories, photos, and ideas to nhfapaper@gmail.com. Also remember to spread the word! When you find yourself reading an article on Facebook or a blog or see a news article about anything home funeral or green burial related, help us get the word out by posting a comment. It can be as simple as, "For more information, go to the National Home Funeral Alliance site, homefuneralalliance.org"
 Thanks!  

After my grandfather took his last breath, I called my sister into his bedroom and said, "I think he's gone..."We had been holding vigil for about a month, keeping Opa warm and comfortable, while he did the work of dying in his own way, in his own home.  Long before dementia robbed us of conversation, we had talked openly about death and dying. He was clear about his wishes and had prepaid for cremation. I had already spoken with a funeral home in Concord who would honor his contract when the time came, even though it was from the 80's and had been purchased in Florida.read Julie's full story here

Reaching out to parents of Newtown 
The NHFA reached out to parents of Newtown to let them know they could request from the Medical Examiner to bring their children home. A letter went out on Facebook, tweets onTwitter, and emails to contacts in hopes that our heartfelt message would find its way to those who might have the opportunity to touch, hold and say goodbye to their child on their own terms. See our message here .

How to join a committee
Thinking you might be able to help out on a committee? You'll find a complete list and contact info for each committee on our website at homefuneralalliance.org. Everyone has a gift to share, so don't be shy. Any and all contributions are welcome.

We need an NHFA website manager
The National Home Funeral Alliance is seeking assistance from an individual (preferably from within our membership) who has fairly good computer and social media skills to manage our website on an ongoing basis.  The NHFA website is an important tool that is used to communicate with our membership and the public.  As with all other NHFA roles this is a volunteer position.  The candidate would serve on the website committee with intentions to consider becoming a member of the board of directors.  We would be pleased to provide further clarifications about the website manager's role and to answer any further questions potential candidates might have.  If you are interested to consider fulfilling such a position or know of someone who might be please send a note to NHFA.information@gmail.com.

Calling all speakers! Our new Speakers Bureau is a ready list of home funeral and green burial advocates who are willing to take the call when members of the public come looking for more information. Do you give a great presentation? Are you willing to be interviewed?

We want you to become a member of the Speakers Bureau! Shoot us an email at nhfapaper@gmail.com with your name, address, contact information as you want it listed, plus a brief bio or description of yourself and what you offer. Thanks!

We hope you enjoy our updates. Feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested. We look forward to more connections through this important work

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Knox
President
National Home Funeral Alliance