Oct 13 2024 40 mins
Kelly Butler, based in Ottawa, Ontario, has lived in various parts of Canada and the U.S. She’s a mother of five and has worked in the realm of death and dying for 30 years, starting with hospice work in Atlanta, Georgia. For Kelly, the cycle of birth and death reflects life itself—beginnings and endings intertwined in a continuous flow. Her work has spanned decades, and she recently completed her master’s in health sciences.
Kelly is the founder of Community Deathcare Ottawa, a collective of practitioners and allies committed to family-led, community-based death care. The group’s mission is to shift death and dying from the medical system and funeral industry back into the hands of the community. This collective hosts events such as grief rituals, home funeral demonstrations, and educational talks on topics like natural burial. While the group doesn't provide direct care, they help connect individuals to the right resources within their community.
Her organization aims to inform the public about death, something society often avoids discussing. Members include death doulas, herbalists, and massage therapists, all bringing different skills to support people at the end of life. Kelly acknowledges the challenges of defining the role of a death doula, especially with varying levels of training and experience within the profession. She reflects on whether death doula work should be formalized or remain as a community-driven practice.
Kelly also teaches a mindfulness-informed end-of-life course, both as a practice of mindfulness and a contemplation of mortality. She emphasizes the importance of being present during death, noting that the body knows how to die, and it's essential to approach death with a sense of acceptance rather than fear. She likens this to facing climate change, noting that while we can't always change the outcome, we can choose how we navigate it—with presence, love, and acceptance.
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