Lauren Carroll founded Returning Home in August 2014. After working for a small family funeral home in her home town in Southern California (2003-2006) then making the move to Colorado and working for a corporate run funeral home(2006-2009) she knew families needed MORE. They needed options, they needed affordability, they needed to be conscious of the Earth, but most of all they needed the option to reconnect with a sacredness and healing that comes from caring for your dead loved one at home. She left the “industry” in 2009 and began her studies of home funerals and the”traditional” ways of caring for your dead at home.
Along with her wonderful board members; Camille Harrison, Jessyka Goings, Adrienne Arnold, Jessica Howe, and Linda Soukup, they will provide educational workshops for their community and families, as well as training for future home funeral advocates.
The mission of Returning Home is Providing Education and Shifting the American views and ways in which we interact with death and dying.
Death is a transition in life, not to be feared, but to embrace. When you take away fear you begin to honor the life lived, families begin to heal, and the heart can catch up with the mind. There is no greater honor than serving families and the dying during this time.
This is wonderful! I am a certified death midwife in the suburbs of Chicago, and outside of doing this for close friends and family, everyone else thinks I’m nuts. Wish we had a “you” in Chicago. Great work you are doing!