DOORWAY INTO LIGHT’S THE DEATH STORE
In January 2012, Doorway Into Light, an Educational non-profit organization in Hawaii,
opened The Death Store, “A Funeral Home and Resource Center” on Maui. Since then it has become the first nonprofit and certified green funeral home in the State of Hawaii. Doorway Into Light’s The Death Store is reinventing and revolutionizing the funeral home. In bringing it forth as a “store”, prominent in the marketplace, that offers most services of a funeral home, and as a “resource center”, useful before and after someone dies. We intend to stimulate and elevate the cultural conversation on aging, dying and death. Offering eco-conscious caskets and urns, many locally made, and providing the services of a funeral director, the store features a bookstore, a lending library, a reference library, home funeral supplies, and free counseling and support services. The next version would include a café component to encourage conversations and self reflection. The hardware store, the shoe store, the clothing store, the grocery store, the death store. Bringing dying and death into our everyday “commons”. We imagine a DOORWAY INTO LIGHT’S THEDEATHSTORE next to”every Starbucks” in America. There is a growing movement in the US towards greening funeral and cemetery practices. As well, there is a movement towards reclaiming end-of –life and after-death care from institutions and industries and returning it to sacred community work. There are now 10,000 people turning 65 every day in the US. And too, there is a movement towards changing how we die, how we view dying and how we take care of the dying. The “DEATH CAFÉ”, which started in England is now spreading to cities and communities throughout the US. Someone organizes a Death Café and borrows a church hall, community center, someone’s home, a restaurant, etc, inviting their community to an evening of discussion on topics concerning death, dying, grieving, etc. The Death Café has been featured in the NY Times, NPR and elsewhere. It’s about one year old in this country. Doorway Into Light has been hosting a monthly, open, free meeting on Maui since 2008, called Being With Dying, and anywhere from 5 to 40 people have been showing up. It’s clear that many people are interested in open discussion on topics rarely spoken about in our culture’s conversations. The word ‘death’ is still a taboo word in this culture. The next Doorway Into Light’s The Death Store will be a “CAFÉ-BOOKSTORE & FUNERAL SUPPLIES AND SERVICES” that will provide a venue for open discussion, classes, small workshops, movies, speakers, etc, creating a gathering place for educating and empowering the community. As well, it will be a “Referral Hub” educating the public about all the related services available in the community. The overall theme is “CONSCIOUS LIVING IN RELATION TO ALL LIFE & CONSCIOUS DYING
