About Mourning Dove Studio

After my mother died in 2004, the casket was one of the things I focused on. I wished for something beautiful that might have helped me stay more emotionally present. This became the start of Mourning Dove Studio, co-founded with Sue Cross, an artist who was already knowledgeable in these areas.

After finding out that conventional burial practices have a significant environmental impact, we decided to also make natural burial practices, home funerals, and other options a strong focus.

Mourning Dove Studio was a business focused on the emotional and practical needs after a death. This primarily meant selling natural burial coffins, caskets, shrouds, and urns.

Mourning Dove Studio was featured on CBS Sunday Morning News, Al Jazeera America, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, and elsewhere. I was nominated for a Leadership Award by the Green Burial Council.
Mourning Dove Studio is no longer a business. This website isn't collecting cookies or trying to sell you anything.

I've heard so many moving stories over the years about how people have commemorated their loved ones in personally meaningful ways and how this has helped them to grieve that I want to share them rather than have these stories disappear.

About Me

My first career was as an occupational therapist. I was a research assistant on two federally funded projects. As a volunteer in Thailand, I developed a program for elder refugees who weren’t eligible for funded programs.

I attended graduate school in sociology. After spending full-time with my kids from 1995 to 2004, I co-founded Mourning Dove Studio in 2007.

Though Mourning Dove Studio is no longer a business and I no longer have an art studio location, I'm keeping this project moving as a digital way to share stories.