Tree of Life Services - End of Life & Funeral Services

02/07/2026

At some point in our lives, we all face the question, "how will I ever get through this?". You know the moments — a sudden loss, a messy break up, an unexpected diagnosis or a career halted…

Do yourself a favour and listen to this podcast, it's for everyone ❤

At some point in our lives, we all face the question, "how will I ever get through this?". You know the moments — a sudden loss, a messy break up, an unexpected diagnosis or a career halted… These questions are close to Lucy Hone's heart, not just because of her work as a resilience researcher, ...

02/07/2026

The wonderful End of Life Doulas at Preparing The Way offer practical advice on "what to say when someone faces end of life"

Learn what to say and what to avoid, when someone is facing end of life, with practical tips for listening, empathy, and meaningful support.

30/06/2026

Planning is key to limit the environmental impact of your body after death.

Think about the environmental legacy you’d like to leave for future generations and put it into action.

From cardboard coffins and natural burials, Australians are becoming more open to alternative farewells.

To ensure your wishes are followed for what happens to your body after death, the key is to plan, to write it all down and to share this with family and/or the person you’ve chosen as your Enduring Guardian.

People need to make many decisions as they face the end of their life, but what happens to their bodies can make a significant difference to the impact on the environment.

In a natural burial, there is minimal preparation of the body. The deceased is usually buried in a natural-fibre cloth shroud and/or biodegradable coffin at a shallow depth and decomposes into the surrounding soil naturally over time. It results in negligible release of greenhouse gas and returns the body to the earth.

Swapping a lacquered timber or MDF coffin with plastic parts for untreated pine, cardboard or wicker reduces emissions from any burial as well as from cremations.

It’s estimated that a mahogany veneer coffin with plastic handles and linings leads to more than 170kg of emissions if cremated.

By comparison, a natural burial with a cardboard coffin and rope handles emits less than 10kg, and of course, a cremation with a cardboard or eco-friendly coffin is more environmentally friendly too.

The biggest impediment to more sustainable deathcare is a tendency for Australians to leave funeral decisions until after a loved one dies.

Like most things in life, planning is very important when it comes to what type of deathcare you require.

Think about the environmental legacy you’d like to leave for future generations and put it into action.

Lauren Newman, Tree of Life Funerals

14/06/2026

“Green” funerals and planning

The No. 1 trend in funerals is personalisation, which I absolutely love, followed by seeking a more environmentally friendly funeral.

The personalisation of what a person wants for their funeral service is a wonderful thing. Choosing the venue, the type of service, who speaks, the music that’s played, whether they’d like a natural burial, a “standard” burial, or to be cremated and then their ashes scattered or interred brings comfort to people.

In some countries and in a couple of places in Australia, there are also some new offerings for the deceased, such as human composting, vertical burial and water cremation, none of which are available in the Eurobodalla as yet, but natural burial and shrouded burial are available at Walawaani Way Conservation Burial in Bodalla.

It is now legal to have shrouded burials in NSW (with the permission of the Cemetery), as well as shrouded cremations (with the permission of the Crematorium), so the environmental impact is reduced by not having to use a coffin, just a shroud bearer.

I often hear “all I want is a cardboard box and then my body to be returned to nature”.

Great, we can do that, but does your family know your wishes?

Have you prepared all your end of life planning paperwork such as a Will, an Advance Care Directive, your funeral plan, and told the people who matter to you where to find them all? Having to try and find your written wishes after you’ve died, or even worse, finding them only after the funeral has taken place, can be heart breaking for the people who care about you.

Did you know that a few hours of planning could spare the people close to you enormous, avoidable pain, confusion, and heartache?

Did you know that end of life planning isn’t about death at all? It’s about living on your own terms, right up until the very end and then being cared for after death in your preferred manner.

Talking about death often teaches us how to live, it can also ease your mind.

You can contact Tree of Life Funerals https://www.treeoflifefunerals.com.au/ to find out more, or Walawaani Way and go on a guided tour of their beautiful grounds.
https://www.walawaaniway.com/

11/06/2026

Did you know that a few hours of planning could spare the people close to you enormous, avoidable pain, confusion, and heartache? That end of life planning isn’t about death at all? It’s about living on your own terms, right up until the very end and then being cared for after death in your preferred manner.

Contact Tree of Life Funerals to find out more about this in the Eurobodalla. email: [email protected]

See the link below for the full article:

Understand your end of life planning options, from advance care directives to wills, and why it matters for you and those close to you.

09/06/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/1FmWPt9qYn/

☘️ Only the Irish looked at death and decided the appropriate response was to throw a party. The Irish wake isn't a failure to grieve properly. It's a sophisticated cultural technology for processing loss that the rest of the world is only beginning to understand. You gather everyone who loved the person, you put them in a room together, you tell every story you can remember about the deceased, and you laugh until you cry and cry until you laugh and by morning something has shifted that couldn't have shifted any other way.

The tradition goes back centuries, rooted in a pre-Christian Irish relationship with death that treated the transition between worlds as something to be marked with ceremony, music, storytelling, and community. The body was never left alone. The family was never left alone. The community showed up and stayed, not out of obligation but out of a genuine understanding that grief shared is grief made survivable. That wisdom crossed every ocean the Irish crossed and showed up in Irish-American communities where wakes became legendary for exactly the same reasons.

What gets missed in the outside perception of the Irish wake is the profound respect underneath the laughter. The stories being told aren't trivializing the person who died. They're refusing to let that person be reduced to their absence. Every laugh in that room is an act of love. Drop a comment if your family still does it this way and follow The Irish Remembered for more. 🕯️☘️

29/05/2026

Grief and Voluntary Assisted Dying.
Lauren Newman, Tree of Life Funerals.

I completed my End-of-Life Doula training through Preparing the Way (PTW) and they continue to provide education and support.

A recent Blog post by PTW spoke in depth about their findings involving Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) and I was so pleased to see this latest post which speaks on this.

I have long been advocating for more support for the families of the people who have chosen VAD.

Part of the PTW Blog says:

“The person who is dying is, of course, central. Their suffering, their choices, their dignity, their clarity, their fear and their wishes all matter. And they are not the only people affected. VAD happens inside families, friendships, communities, belief systems, histories, old wounds, love, fear and grief.

One of the clearest threads to emerge was that families can support a decision and still feel deeply conflicted. These two things are not opposites. A daughter, husband, partner, friend or sibling may absolutely understand why their person has chosen VAD. They may believe in that person’s right to choose. They may advocate for them, sit beside them, help with appointments, protect their wishes, and speak up when others do not understand. And still, somewhere inside, there may be a quieter voice saying, “But why are you leaving me?” or “Why can’t you stay a little longer?” or “Why aren’t you fighting for us?”

That is not judgement. That is grief”.

For a person who has chosen VAD and their family, an end of life doula fits in on the human level.

Doulas can hold the questions that do not always belong to the doctor, the nurse, the navigator or the funeral director and provide many personal services which simply aren’t offered elsewhere.

As the PTW blog says “For some families, after-death care can be a way for love to keep moving. This is something many end of life doulas understand deeply. When someone dies, especially after a planned death, the people who are still present can be carrying so much feeling that has nowhere to go.

Gentle, family-led after-death care can give grief a way to be expressed and shared. Sitting with the person, washing their face, shaving them, dressing them, placing flowers, opening a window, lighting a candle, telling stories, keeping vigil for a while, or creating a simple ritual can help the death become part of a wider story of care rather than only the moment of medication.

This is not about telling families what they should do. Some will want the funeral director to come quickly. Some will choose direct cremation and feel completely at peace with that. Others may later realise that the simplicity that suited the person dying did not fully meet the grief needs of the people left behind.

We need to be able to ask, gently and without agenda: What will help this family farewell? What will help this grief move? What will help love complete the next step?

Also, Doulas need to clearly understand the legislation in their state or territory, their scope of practice, the language they use, their own beliefs, the risk of coercion, the need for neutrality, and the difference between support and persuasion. The person and their family deserve support that is steady, informed, compassionate and free of hidden agenda.

That does not mean doulas become advocates for VAD. It means we become advocates for good care, truthful conversations, family support, grief literacy, choice, preparation and dignity. It means we can sit with people in the realness of what is in front of them. We can support the person who is dying, and we can also ask: Who is supporting the person who is supporting them?

Voluntary assisted dying is not only about the person who chooses it. It is about the circle around them. It is about the person who makes the phone calls, sits awake at night, holds the secret, supports the decision, feels the fear, prepares the room, witnesses the death, calls the funeral director, and wakes up the next morning in a world that has changed.

As end of life doulas, we are well placed to serve in this space, but only if we do so with humility, education, ethical clarity and heart.

We are not there to replace doctors, nurses, navigators, counsellors, palliative care teams or funeral directors. We are there to bring the human thread, to help people talk, prepare, help them ask questions they did not know they were allowed to ask, help families understand that their mixed feelings are not a failure of love, and to help grief find a shape.

I have found that, as a funeral director as well as an end of life doula, I am able to offer much more support to the dying person and their families than a "regular" funeral director and I can approach a VAD event, or any end of life situation with great care, compassion and understanding.

To read the full Blog from PTW, and for further information on VAD grief and support resources, please see:

Voluntary assisted dying affects everyone in the circle. What families, carers and end of life doulas need to know about VAD grief.

04/05/2026

Griefline – You’re not alone in your grief

There are many types of grief and it’s not just the death of someone you love which causes it.

Grief is a natural response to losing someone or something that’s important and it can shake the foundations of your life.

Grief can be bought on by:
• The death of someone you love
• The death of a beloved pet
• Losing financial security and stability
• Losing connection and companionship
• The end of a meaningful relationship
• Global instability and the fear of losing the life you know

Your grief can be heightened by important anniversaries and it can hit you when you least expect it.

We’re all complex, fragile human beings and it’s important to know that you’re never alone in your grief. Even if you’re not ready to talk to someone yet, Griefline has fabulous online resources to help you through.

Just know that grief is natural and normal, it doesn’t have a timeline, and you don’t have to cope alone.

See

Griefline provides free national grief helpline, community forums, and resources to help Australians navigate loss with care and understanding. Call 1300 845 745 for support.

18/04/2026

Gratitude.

When I was a child, I was taught to count my blessings, to be grateful for everything I had in my life.

There are studies which show that living life with gratitude makes us happier, it improves our satisfaction with our lives, so gratitude is good for us.

In today’s hugely disrupted world, where every day we hear reports of mass killings, wars, injustice, rapidly rising prices, and people showing hatred towards others, it’s often hard to feel grateful.

But the happiness of our lives is impacted by our perspective on life and how we choose to feel at any given time.

Here in Australia, we are currently feeling the fall-out of world events and it’s when these events start to affect us personally, gratitude is even harder to find.

Back to that perspective, in Australia, we are not at war, we don’t have bombs raining down and the military of another country trying to kill us, we are still living in peace, and that’s certainly something to be very grateful for.

When I was conducting a burial service a week ago, it was a beautiful, mild sunny day. I had written a ceremony which told the story of the person who’s service we were conducting.

The ceremony was full of love, friends and family came up to speak, emotions were shared, beautiful music was played, tears were shed and the acknowledgement of grief was open to all.

We conducted this ceremony in peace and love.

Death is inevitable, but how we honour our dead makes all the difference to the depths of our grief. Holding a funeral service which has been individually created brings peace and the start of healing for the people left behind.

Afterwards, I reflected on how lucky we are that we have the privilege to honour our deceased loved ones in this way, as I thought about the over 160 small innocent children in Iran who went to school one day and then were bombed from the face the earth.

These children didn’t have any such opportunity to be laid to rest like we have in Australia. Their families didn’t have the opportunity to say goodbye in such a beautiful way as the service I held earlier in the day.

I thought about the over 65,000 people in Gaza who had also been wiped out and how so many of them will never even be properly laid to rest as their bodies will never be found, or their remains will go into a mass grave. The idea of this makes me so very sad for them all.

So for your own sake, and for the sake of those around you, see if you can develop a gratitude practice – instead of being critical or angry or complain about your life, focus on what you have to be grateful for, and celebrate it. Your perspective on life will change and your happiness will improve, which is another thing to be grateful for!

When people come to the end of their lives, what often matters most to them is the relationships they’ve had, the love they’ve shared, time shared with others, not their worldly goods, or how much time they devoted to work, they are grateful for the sharing of human experiences, and the love.

Our lives may not be perfect, but I for one am very grateful for the life we have here in our lucky country.

Lauren Newman, Tree of Life Services & Funerals