Threshold Care Circle

05/29/2026

Join us this evening for our monthly Death Cafe held at the Vernon County Historical Society & Museum! There will be “cake” in the form of fresh rhubarb muffins! 🤗❤️ hope to see you!

05/29/2026

TCC members Tracy Mangold and Susan Nesbit had the honor of presenting at the 15th annual Midwest Women's Herbal Conference. Tracy presented on herbs and grief and Susan presented on her role as an end-of-life doula. They also hosted a Death Cafe that was powerful and beautiful!

05/27/2026

Susan Nesbit and Tracy Mangold of Threshold Care Circle held safe and open space for grief and death related issues at the Midwest Women's Herb Conference this past weekend. Tracy taught a class on the many ways we encounter grief and how to support one another. Susan taught about the work of the death doula. Together they shared a death cafe with conference participants. Many brave souls united in care and vulnerability, creating deeper connections. There is so much grief in our world today. How can we open doorways and create safe space to support one another?

05/13/2026

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
The funeral industry is experiencing a massive shift!

60% of funeral directors are retiring in the next five years, and there's a huge new wave of mortuary students, death doulas, home funeral guides, celebrants, and other death care workers entering the industry who are young, excited, predominantly women.
Federal regulators are considering expanding price transparency laws in the funeral industry this year.

04/30/2026

“Death is a certainty. You wouldn’t think so, the way we spend our lives avoiding it. But when I’m working with loved ones left behind, that avoidance becomes an inheritance of confusion and conflict. Children and partners making unbearable decisions in the worst moments of their lives.

Pre-need planning — arranging your funeral or memorial service before you die — is not morbid. It is one of the most loving, generous, and practical things you can do for the people who love you.”

Read more from our friend and Chicago-based death doula Catherine Durkin Robinson on her Substack ~

Show your people that you love them.

04/26/2026

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.
—Mary Oliver

Stunning shroud by Lena Sass Hughes (shrouds_and_ashes), made by using cyanotypes, a process which uses sunlight to create an image. ❤️🌻

04/23/2026

We had a beautiful, powerful workshop—people came together, asked thoughtful questions, and left feeling more confident and empowered to care for their own at home.
There’s something deeply meaningful about understanding our rights around home funerals and green burial, and reclaiming what has always been ours.
And our newest teacher, Maks Kopish, did a wonderful job—holding the space with reverence, clarity, and heart. Grateful to witness this shift, one conversation at a time.

04/16/2026

Did you know that Driftless Green Burial Alliance (DGBA) is an initiative of Threshold Care Circle?

Join us for an overview of green burial to learn what it is, why you might be interested, and what a natural burial can look like...

04/01/2026

A few spots remain…
Join us for an empowering day of learning, remembering, and reclaiming the sacred act of caring for our dead at home, while exploring natural burial. Maks Kopish and Susan Nesbit will be teaching on Saturday, April 11th from 9-4 in Viroqua. See flyer for details.

03/27/2026

Threshold volunteers met this morning for a visioning retreat and our potluck produced a lot of extra CAKE! Join us at the Death Cafe this evening to enjoy the leftovers!! 5pm @ the Vernon County Historical Society 🤗🧁🍰🎂💀