Death Ed with Erin

04/29/2026

Many of you who feel called toward this work, but aren’t in a season to commit months of time or thousands of dollars on training.

Enter, Threshold. An accessible entry point into the world of death doulaship and end-of-life care.
Over one online weekend, we will explore the foundational skills of a death doula, from legacy work to funerals.

It’s more than a death doula 101 training. It’s a real beginning.
If you feel the pull, I invite you to join us. This is the kind of weekend that leaves a lifetime impression.

SIgn up at the link in bio

04/29/2026

When most people think of death doula, they think of the 11th hour.
That liminal time when death is near and we are tending the environment, the senses, holding wait.

But really, death doulaship is so much more than only the final hours or days.
It is sitting with the dying while their families rest.
Its conversations about mortality, sometimes hard.
Its looking at photos and listening to the stories that made up a whole life
It’s sitting with the feelings the dying have about their life - good or bad.

It’s planning funerals.
Attending burials.
Educating families while they grieve.
It is holding them when they cry and adding your voice to their song.
Its helping them say goodbye
With rituals and rights

It is a reclamation that what is dead still matters.

04/27/2026

Death education is for everyone.

I offer single day classes as well as longer certification programs.

You can explore the full lineup of classes at erinmerelli.com, link in bio🖤

04/25/2026

04/24/2026

We loved having Lori in the last session of Deathschool Evolved. Here's what she has to say. 🎤 🖤

04/23/2026

Grief came around this week.
My friend Veronica died. She was only 44.

I met Roni in my first job after college. She was, unofficially, the queen of the department. Beautiful and unruly. I instantly liked her.

When she told me she was sick, the first thing she said was,
“I’m sorry if I was ever a bitch to you back then.”
You were never a bitch to me. You were always a queen.

She once said she wanted to be like me when she grew up, then came her famous laugh, before explaining what she meant. She admired the way I expressed my depth. That meant more to me than she knew.

I wanted to be more like her, too. When we were young, she was carelessly cool, confident, a natural leader. I was sensitive and awkward.

As she got sick, her grace grew enormous. She was grateful for the smallest things. She fought so hard to stay in a world many of us take for granted.

She came to Jamaica with us, against the odds and between chemotherapy treatments. A dying wish.

We didn’t get what we ordered. The hurricane saw to that. But her smile was as wide as the sunset, her tears as real as the rain. And how she wanted to stay, even when the storm was coming.

We held a living funeral for her, telling her how much we loved her while she was still here to hear it. Her loved ones from all walks of life, in one place, to honor her.

On her last day, after days of silence, she whispered “Montego Bay.”

I like to think her mom came to get her.
And together, they were headed to the islands.

RIP Veronica 🕯️

04/23/2026

Green burial simply means we return our bodies to the earth in a way that feeds it. Just as the Earth fuels our life, we can also fuel the earth. Flowers can grow from our death, in literal and poetic ways.

Instead, the common practice is to take a list of steps to preserve the body, slowing decomposing and stopping the body from returning to the soil. That’s why we love green burial. It’s a way to say thank you, and to share what we can with the Earth that has so loyally hosted us. 🌿💀

04/21/2026

Do you know what your odds of dying are?
Guaranteed
Do you know what the odds of your loved ones dying are?
Unfortunately, 100%

But yet we rarely prepare.
We think it’s taboo.
When the time comes, we don’t know what to do.

Death education allows us to approach our impossible, inevitable losses
with some degree of preparedness.

It teaches us to how to honor them well from the begin-of-the-end until the final service.
Also how to tend to those who remain.
Grief needs a community and a witness.

Learning about death replaces our fear of the great unknown
with an intention to meet it with love.

Because the truth is, we don’t stop loving our dead. We just need to remember how. 🖤

04/20/2026

To be witnessed in grief 🖤

04/17/2026

Thank you, thank you, thank you! If you signed up for the Spring session of Deathschool Evolved, I am so proud of you for stepping into this work. I cannot wait to dive deep with you all.

If you were unable to join this time around, sign up for the Summer waitlist (linked in comments) to be the first to hear about details and early bird pricing. This work is not going away anytime soon. 💀🖤

04/16/2026

Look at my weird work getting all popular.

Weird work? A lot of folks think so. Those who consider death a bad word or a taboo. Those who think this is a goth girl thing.

It’s not. It’s an everybody thing.

Every. Last. Body.

Will die.

I lost someone I loved very much when I was young.

I spent the next 20+ years becoming the person I needed back then.

I’ve spent the last near-decade sharing that with others. Walking them home.

It is my hope that more and more compassionate humans lean into death Doulaship, whether professionally, or simply to care for their own loved ones at the end.

Let’s make a good death popular, since we’re all gonna do it one way or another.

My upcoming Deathschool Evolved program is sold out, but we’ll begin again with a new group of learners come August. In the meantime, I have 2 free 101 classes on my website to get you started.

P.S…. AI 🤖 could never.