Paperbark Deathcare

30/07/2025

https://events.humanitix.com/s-burial

This is happening next Thursday at Tweed Valley Cemetery & Crematorium ~ I will be speaking on all things sustainable for burial & cremation ~ what's possible, what's legal & why.

You need to register for this event ~ link below.

What does a more sustainable burial look like? Tweed Shire Council Cemeteries invites you to a free community event exploring sustainable burial options.

13/06/2025

06/06/2025

🖤
💛
♥️
LUV YA UNC

01/06/2025

24/05/2025

Ever wonder who will come to sit in ceremony when you die? Do we ever really know how many people we touch along the way?

Sudden deaths can be bewildering for many of us, they are the ones that really reach in down into the guts with an open fist grabbing hold tightly with what can feel like a dog doing a death shake…or a numbing washed over us, wanting to sleep a lot, not talk & just tune the noise of the world & feelings out…so many variables as we all do death differently yet there is one common ground with sudden/unexpected deaths…they take our breath away…
We do death everyday here at Paperbark it’s what we are all in service to & our breath is taken away numerous times a day, we also often are tending to our own people…like yesterday for Em…30 years ago I met Em in high school in Armidale in those years of teen exploring ALL the things, testing boundaries, our bodies & the boys! It was the years of pure abandon,fun & endless firsts…then whoosh life leads all over the globe & the next time I see her is in our mortuary…all those years later, the memories filter through, the reminders, watching her 4 beautiful children tend to her as her mum & dad along with big bro sway yet as pillars of their families core they wrap their love around each other & this community…its bewildering, heart shattering & the raw reality of natures wildfires to tranquil waters happens so so quickly….grief, that old chestnut is more of a roller coaster ride than a meandering path - it all comes down to the speed & traction felt on the bends & as the dipper approaches…all I know is we have to keep our arms up on the way down & around our nearest & dearest on the bends… Big love Em, you now are cruising in absolute freedom…🤍

17/05/2025

I know it feels like a mission to come out in the evening, especially in all this rain…yet these are hands down so so special…

Music, the universal language carrying us with 5 Rhythms DJ Jackie pontooning through the eddies & whirlpools of grief in all its wild & tranquil waters within & without…link to book in stories…

17/05/2025

A little warm welcome to Cherry 🍒…

To finally have our own hearse in the family is quite something 🥰…only been dreaming of this since I was 10 years old, now we will all have to paper, scissor & rock to see who drives…

🖤

28/04/2025

“Black. The song is about letting go. It’s very rare for a relationship to withstand the earth’s gravitational pull and where it’s going to take people and how they’re going to grow. I’ve heard it said that you can’t really have a true love unless it was a love unrequited. It’s a harsh one, because then your truest one is the one you can’t have forever”.

~ Eddie Vedder

Went to a sweet little beach yesterday - Sunday, it had a monk seal snoozing, a baptism party in full swing & funeral wake all happening all at the same time a few metres away from each other. All the people/children were wearing T-shirts that had an image of who had died - the sleeves were branded with an all America beer…everyone was swimming dancing & singing….the baptisms went for a long time one after the other…it was fascinating to witness how diverse the world is & how differently we all ultimately let go…

These words of Eddie’s popped up today & gosh when this album come out wasn’t it a heart melter…

🤍 Halie

10/04/2025

The girls are running the death ranch for the next month …it seems I have to leave the country to actually stop, not being a martyr saying that ~ it’s a reality right now & I am so ok with it, even when face planting into bed after mammoth days straddling worlds & realms…the pivot point is here though, again…what does that mean?…who knows because each week, month & year seems to stretch the horizon in ways I just continue to do the puppy dog head tilt to following this death dancing dirt road that meanders on & on…through all the…dips & valleys….roller coaster rides…burn outs… & lighting a fire inside that seems to be the enduring guardian we all want bedside…the hardest thing - death - in all its forms really does bloom the softest of hearts….it all feels endless & the bottom line is we can’t fall out of love….if anything it gets stronger when we can’t touch our loves physically anymore…it’s a twisted torture of sorts…

Today as I sit here awaiting a flight to Hawaii I wonder observing peoples & my own hip swagger & foot fall, the density of grief I/we walk with is so evident in how we roll thy hips & place our sole/soul on the ground as we walk on by to the other side….here’s to a super soft few weeks bowing to Peles powers….🌋….

🐌

05/03/2025

It’s the calm before the storm, a little quieting for us with cyclone Alfred is reminding us of mother natures power.

We are high & dry here at Paperbark, all those years of hunting for where to build the first stage of this funeral home, one thing was at the top of the list.

Out of flood zones…

After the last 2 floods washing through our worlds we could not go through it again, hence we are not in our ideal long term nest & it’s why we built the internal fit out in a way that we can take it with us when the next stage arrives…we are high on a ridge line in what’s called the ‘’new’ industrial area of Murwillumbah…

We had our busiest day yesterday, the troopy hearse/body moving vehicle is not just a fantasy but a necessity now, life deathing on the Northern River of NSW is f🥷king wild when the waters & winds come…& some people driveways are for dare devils…

Betty & I were out in both vans in convoy tending to all who let go in their homes & nursing homes, the transfer company we work with also had to step in because we couldn’t do it all yesterday…oh & we had a funeral amongst it all!

Now that we are all tucked in, we wait….its eerie…between the wind, rain & still moments as this cyclone approaches, it stirs all the things…

I am now alone here at Paperbark, everyone has gone home so it is I riding this cyclone with quite the motley crew of characters that have travelled on into the vast unknown under our care …

All those years ago watching Six Feet Under (wanting to redesign their layout & colours 👀) here I am upstairs putting the slow cooker on, deep in a series vortex (Bad Sisters) & will be able to tick off a few odd jobs from the endless to do list…oh & keep hunting for a hearse…it’s time & they are bloody hard to come by, ones that don’t cost a fortune or are dicky…anyone got one in the back shed gathering dust?

So to all out there riding this cyclone Alfred tiger, hunker down & snuggle in…let’s see what he has to show us…

🌀

Pic by Katrin Yurova

11/02/2025

Um…we come undone this evening unpacking A’s bag….
Seriously her bag got me, velvet night gown from the 70’s, proper comfy slippers that all make that same universal scuff sound, her scrabble set & plastic pink roses…

Ever thought about what you want to got to cremation or burial with you? What do you want to be dressed in after you hang up your coat?

👜🌷