Dustin Schneider
Founder of Living Observance
My name is Dustin, and I have experienced in the first 3.5 years of marriage what many people experience over the course of many decades. Unfortunately, one of the events that continued to make an appearance was a death in the family. After only 5 months of marriage, my Mother passed away (April 2017). 13 months later (May 2018), my wife's Grandfather passed away from prior health complications. October 2018, only 5 months later, my Mother-in-Law passed away from liver, lung, and pancreatic cancer. June 2019, 8 months later, my wife's aunt passed away from lung cancer. In March of 2020, 9 months later, I lost my Grandfather after a long battle with brain cancer.
The number of events that my wife I have been through during such a compressed period of time has allowed us to reflect on many topics surrounding death and dying. We are not professionals in the death care service industry, but we are very experienced in everything from being the estate administrator to supporting those who have recently lost someone. We have been forced to grieve from a distance (with an entire ocean between the surviving family members and us) and postpone the normal rituals following a passing due to the Corona Virus. While trying to grieve, our first 2 children were born, we finished the immigration process for my wife, I've switched jobs, and we settled the legal entanglements my Mother was involved with as she passed away. All of these events either delayed our grieving or made it more complicated.
My wife and I want to share our journey and the lessons we have learned from our personal experiences. We hope to help you through your first experience with death or help you remember some of the finer details if it has been a while. We will provide information about the history and technical details of various topics, interviews with professionals to help shine a light on the many mysteries of the death care industry, and ultimately show you that there is a way to turn losing a loved one a positive and healing experience.
