Death Doula Dena

09/04/2026

✨🕯️✨

Volunteers Needed!

We’re getting ready for our 9th Annual Reflections on the River, and we need your help to make this beautiful evening of remembrance possible.

As dusk falls, more than 3,000 luminarias will illuminate the pathways along the Willamette River as our community comes together to celebrate, remember, and honor loved ones who have passed.

Volunteers are needed between 1:00–11:00 p.m. to help:
- Assemble luminaria bags
- Line pathways with luminarias
- Set up activity stations
- Help with event clean-up

Join us on September 17 at Salem’s Riverfront Park and help us create a meaningful space for remembrance and connection.

Volunteer Form: https://vist.ly/5gheb

Contact us:
Call Brittney Blakley: 503-588-3600
email: [email protected]

09/04/2026

Sunday 3pm in Classroom A

Join Dena Swift for:

"What Does A Death Doula Do?"

Dena Swift is a Death Doula. She helps people who have discovered their time is running out, make the most of their final months of life. It is her mission to help people complete their journeys, in spite of a ticking clock. Some have dreams they need to realize, others have confessions they need to make, and most need to forgive or find forgiveness - before their time runs out. When they know the end is coming, she can help them live.

You may hear end-of-life doula referred to as a soul midwife, end-of-life coach, death midwife, transition guide, or death doula. As an end-of-life death doula I help manage the transition between life and death. During this time, Dena acts as a companion to the dying or as an advocate for the family’s needs. She works in conjunction with hospice and palliative care programs to provide non-medical companionship to the dying and their families to complement the clinical support they receive. Providing a wide range of holistic services, including physical, emotional, spiritual, and practical support from the time of initial diagnosis through bereavement.

As part of her practice, she also assists the living by crafting holistic death and rebirth rituals & ceremonies. By nature, this role is holistic and highly personal.

All you brave souls ready to explore your curiosity and fear around death and dying? Come join the conversation ~ Let us talk about death and learn about life.

EndofLifeDeathDoula.com
Death Doula Dena
Find Dena Swift in Booth 97
The RaSani Fair
Linn County Expo
3700 Knox Butte Rd E
Albany, OR 97322

08/31/2026

From the Kitchen Table to the Deathbed - What Water Remembers
Before you were anything, you were water.

For nine months, you floated in a private sea inside your mother’s womb. Scientists who study amniotic fluid have found something astonishing its chemistry echoes seawater so closely that some now describe it as a "biological ocean." Long before any of us understood the science, cultures all over the world seemed to sense it anyway.

We are made of water, we are born from it, and it never really leaves us. Right now, your body is roughly 60% water. We are not just made of water, we carry it with us. It's in the blood that carries oxygen to your fingertips. It's in the fluid cushioning your brain and spine. It's in the tears at a birth, and it's in the tears at a deathbed.
I think about this a lot in my work.

At the kitchen table, water shows up as something ordinary, a glass poured for a guest, tea steeped for a hard conversation, hands washed before a meal is shared. At the deathbed, water shows up as something sacred, a sponge moistening dry lips when someone can no longer drink, a cool cloth on a forehead, the simple mercy of comfort care when the body is closing its doors one by one. Same substance. Same tenderness, really, just at different ends of a life.

Across nearly every culture with a story about what happens after we die, water marks the crossing. When we are born water is poured out and water is poured out for the dead. Water offered to purify before a birth and again before a burial. It's as if humans have always reached for water to say the thing language can't quite hold, something is passing from one state into another, and we need to honor it.

So today, if you fill a glass at your kitchen table, or sit with someone at a bedside and offer them water from a spoon, pause for just a second. You're not doing something small. You're doing one of the oldest, most human things there is, tending the water in someone else, the same water that once held you, that will one day be poured out for you too.

From the Kitchen Table to the Deathbed is a series exploring how the sacred and the ordinary meet in caregiving, in dying, and in the small rituals that hold us through both.

Death Doula Dena

07/08/2026

There are two places where I've had the privilege of witnessing some of life's most meaningful conversations.

The first was around the kitchen table.

For years, as a REALTOR®, families invited me into their homes during seasons of transition. We talked about selling a home, downsizing, estate sales, divorce, financial hardship, and the practical decisions that come with life's unexpected turns.
But somewhere between the paperwork and the packing boxes, something deeper always emerged.

The stories.

The home where children were raised.
The dining room that hosted decades of holiday meals.
The coffee mug that always belonged to Grandpa.
The bedroom where a loved one took their final breath.

I learned that people weren't simply leaving a house.
They were saying goodbye to a chapter of their lives.

Today, I sit at a different table.

Sometimes it's a bedside table.
Sometimes it's a hospice room.
Sometimes it's a quiet corner where a family gathers after hearing difficult news.

As an End-of-Life Doula, the conversations have changed but they have also remained remarkably familiar.

We still talk about love.
We still talk about family.
We still tell stories.
We still ask what truly matters.

I've come to believe that the distance between the kitchen table and the deathbed is not as great as we often imagine.

Both are sacred places.
Both invite honesty.
Both ask us to make difficult decisions with compassion.
Both remind us that every life is measured not by the things we own, but by the relationships we nurture and the memories we leave behind.

So, I'd like to invite you to pull up a chair.

In this new series, we'll explore the stories, traditions, words, and conversations that shape how we navigate life's greatest transitions.
Some posts will uncover the fascinating history behind the language of death and remembrance.

Some will reflect on the lessons I've learned while serving families as both a REALTOR® and an End-of-Life Doula. Some will gently explore the conversations our culture often avoids, not to dwell on death, but to discover how talking about it can help us live with greater intention.

My hope is simple.

That this becomes a place where curiosity is welcomed, questions are honored, and meaningful conversations can begin. Because sometimes the most important conversations we'll ever have begin with something as simple as...

"Would you like to sit down and have a cup of coffee?" ☕

With gratitude,
Death Doula Dena

07/01/2026

When you’re called to deathcare, it can be hard to know what to do with your experiences, or how to follow the inner nudging that you have something to offer.

If you’ve been trying to validate what you intuitively know about death and dying, I’ve created a free ebook, “You May Be a Deathwalker,” to help you find the affirmation you’ve been missing.

Comment DEATHWALKER to get your copy.

06/13/2026

This is honestly so cool.

In a post shared on X (Twitter), user shared photos of her late brother’s casket. In the post’s caption, she explained that “he used to joke about making people put band stickers on his casket”, as well as throw candy inside.

While she “never thought that day would come so soon,” she and the rest of his loved ones “made sure he had the most punk coffin in history.”

06/05/2026

💀The death industry in America is broken. And 77 million Baby Boomers are about to expose exactly how broken it is.

Death Boom is a new documentary — produced by Leonardo DiCaprio — that pulls back the curtain on what we don't talk about: the environmental damage of conventional burial and cremation, the mental health toll on funeral workers, and the political and corporate forces keeping greener, more affordable options out of reach for ordinary families.

This film is premiering at Tribeca on June 9, and I am here for every conversation it starts.

The way we care for our dead says everything about how we value life. Families deserve to know their choices. Workers deserve better protections. And the earth deserves better from all of us.

Watch the trailer. Share it with someone you love. Then let's talk. 🌱

Compelled by the urgency of the subject and the rare opportunity to...

05/25/2026

The Value of Time

When someone is dying, when we are preparing to say goodbye to someone we love, time begins to feel different. It becomes more tender. More fragile. More honest.

Even in the aging process, when we notice changes, and the slow shifting of what once was, time takes on a deeper meaning. We begin to understand that it was never something we owned… it was always something we were being given.

When my brother was dying, and I sat at his bedside, one of the things I kept saying was how sorry I was for wasting so much time. I wasted time being angry. I wasted time believing there would always be more time.

And I think many of us do that.

We put things off. We say, “one day.” We wait for the right moment, the right season, the right version of ourselves. We think there will be more time to say what needs to be said, to forgive, to begin again, to take the trip, to make the call, to become the person we always said we wanted to be.

But life and death teach us that time is not guaranteed.

Time is a gift.

It is something we give to others.
It is something others give to us.
It is something we ask for, offer, waste, protect, and sometimes regret.

I also think we forget that respecting someone’s time is a form of love. When we promise to show up for someone, whether it is for an event, a meeting, a visit, or as part of someone’s care team, our presence matters.

And how we arrive matters too. When we say we will be there at a certain time and then show up late without thought or apology, we are quietly saying that our time matters more than theirs.

We have to do better than that.

If we are running late, we can communicate that. If we make a promise, we should honor it. If someone is waiting for us, especially someone who is vulnerable, grieving, aging, or dying, we need to remember that their time is sacred too.

And when someone is sitting in front of us, sharing something important, maybe a memory, a worry, a dream, or even just the details of their day, we need to listen. Really listen. Because that moment will never come again.

Time asks us to pay attention.

To keep our promises.
To stop postponing our lives.
To honor the people in front of us.
To value not only our own time, but the time others are generous enough to share with us.

Because one day, we may look back and realize that what seemed ordinary was actually precious. And we will wish we had treated it that way sooner.

When we honor someone else’s time, we are honoring them.

xo
Gabby
www.thehospiceheart.net

05/18/2026

💜🕯️🦋

Be our guest at our upcoming butterfly release event. 🦋

This special in-person event honors families who have experienced perinatal, infant or child loss.

You are not alone on this journey. Connect with a caring community, access support resources, create heartfelt crafts, and share a meaningful remembrance moment. Families will also have the chance to meet Caesar the llama and enjoy other family-friendly activities.

To guarantee you receive a butterfly to release, register by May 25! General registration closes on June 15. If you are unable to attend in person, you may still register and have your butterfly released by a volunteer.

Thursday, June 25
5 to 7 p.m.
Butterfly release: 6 p.m.

📍Pringle Hall Community Center at Pringle Park
606 Church St SE, Salem, OR 97301
Parking lot entrance is on Church Street

Register here: https://bit.ly/3Oe0btN

05/14/2026

What if you could see your entire life on a single page? 🕰️

I recently came across something that genuinely stopped me in my tracks — and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.

It's called a Memento Mori calendar. 💀

Your entire life, mapped out in small squares. Each square = one week. Based on an average lifespan of 80 years, that's 4,160 squares total.

You fill one in. Every. Single. Week.

That's it. That's the whole practice.

But when you sit down and actually look at how many squares are already filled... and how many are left... something shifts deep inside you.

The ancient Stoics, medieval monks, and some of history's greatest minds — from Marcus Aurelius to Tolstoy — all practiced the same thing: regularly reminding themselves that life is short. Not to be gloomy. Not to be morbid. But to stop sleepwalking through it.

It doesn't make you anxious. It makes you ask better questions -

👉 Am I spending my weeks on what actually matters?
👉 What have I been putting off that I truly care about?
👉 Who deserves more of my time and presence?

Marcus Aurelius wrote *"You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think."*

Because here's the truth most of us quietly avoid

⏳ Time isn't coming back.
✅ But you still have squares left.

Memento Mori — remember that you must die.
Memento Vivere — remember to truly live.

If you've ever felt stuck, distracted, or like time is just slipping through your fingers — this is your gentle but firm nudge.

Have you ever tried one of these calendars? Would you? I'd genuinely love to hear your thoughts. ⬇️