In this week's episode, I'm joined by my longtime friend Rachel Plonka, a nurse coach, former member of the Jewish burial society, and fellow granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, and we talk about the different ways death becomes part of our lives - whether through the stories we inherit, the work we do, or the people we love. 

We discuss the rituals that give death meaning, the goodbyes we wish we'd handled differently, and the realization that no matter how comfortable we become with death… there’s still an element of discomfort - and that’s okay.

Because, after all, nobody taught us how to die.

If this conversation moved you, follow Goodbye Moon for more honest conversations about death, dying, love, legacy, and the many ways we say goodbye.

And if it made you wonder why we wait until someone is gone to say the things that matter most, that question is exactly why The Goodbye Experience exists — creating meaningful goodbye gatherings while the people we love are still here to experience them.

Explore The Goodbye Experience:
https://thejewishdeathdoula.com/goodbyeexperience/

Connect with Sara:
https://www.instagram.com/jewishdeathdoula/

Connect with Rachel:
https://www.instagram.com/nursecoachrachel/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/racheldick/ 

https://substack.com/@nursecoachrachel?utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page 

Obviously, I was intrigued... But in this week’s episode, I discover there’s a lot more of Marie in that story than even she realized.

We talk about Marie’s experience coming face-to-face with death, how thinking about dying can actually make us fall more in love with being alive, and why I call bullshit on the advice to “live every day like it’s your last.”

And because Marie is also a tarot reader, we end the episode with a reading for all of us - not about dying, but about how we’re living right now.

If this conversation moved you, follow Goodbye Moon for more honest conversations about death, dying, love, legacy, and the many ways we say goodbye.

Explore The Goodbye Experience:
https://thejewishdeathdoula.com/goodbyeexperience/

Connect with Sara:
https://www.instagram.com/jewishdeathdoula

Learn More About The Unblock Retreat:
https://www.school-of-souls.com/ 

Connect with Marie:
https://www.instagram.com/schoolofsouls/ 

Download the First Chapter of “You Have One More Summer, Says Death”
https://www.oetinger.de/sites/default/files/download/Hofmann_Du%20hast%20noch%20einen%20Sommer%2C%20sagt%20der%20Tod_English%20Sample%20Translation.pdf 

In this week’s episode, we talk about what happens when adults think they’re protecting children from death, the relief (and guilt) that can come when someone you love finally dies after a long illness, and why saying goodbye to someone doesn’t mean you’re giving them permission to die.

We also get into something I hadn’t really thought about before this conversation: maybe saying goodbye isn’t something you do once. Maybe we’re saying goodbye throughout our lives - even to those who have already died.

If this conversation moved you, follow Goodbye Moon for more honest conversations about death, dying, love, legacy, and the many ways we say goodbye.

And if it made you wonder why we wait until someone is gone to say the things that matter most, that question is exactly why The Goodbye Experience exists — creating meaningful goodbye gatherings while the people we love are still here to experience them.

Explore The Goodbye Experience:
https://thejewishdeathdoula.com/goodbyeexperience/

Connect with Sara:
https://www.instagram.com/jewishdeathdoula/

Connect with Sarah Rivkah and Links Family:
https://www.instagram.com/links.family/

Donate to Links Family:
https://www.rayze.it/linksfamilyforever/sarazoldan

In this week’s episode, Joél — also known as The Grave Woman — shares what it was like growing up with a connection to spirits, playing funeral with her cousins, and the vision she had for herself as a funeral director.

We talk about learning to trust the voice inside of you, tapping into your intuition, and Joél’s Gullah Geechee culture, where ancestors, ritual, and community offer a very different way of understanding death and grief.

And somewhere in the middle of our conversation, Joél says a line I haven’t stopped thinking about: “Culture is the medicine for grief.”

Maybe we don’t need to figure out how to grieve from scratch. Maybe we just need to learn how to use the medicine.

If this conversation moved you, follow Goodbye Moon for more honest conversations about death, dying, love, legacy, and the many ways we say goodbye.

And if it made you wonder why we wait until someone is gone to say the things that matter most, that question is exactly why The Goodbye Experience exists — creating meaningful goodbye gatherings while the people we love are still here to experience them.

Explore The Goodbye Experience:
https://thejewishdeathdoula.com/goodbyeexperience/

Connect with Sara:
https://www.instagram.com/jewishdeathdoula/

Connect with Joél Simone:
https://www.instagram.com/thegravewoman/ 

In this week’s episode, I’m joined by Dr. Matthew Tyler, a palliative care physician and the face of @HowToTrainYourDoctor who has spent the last ten years having the conversations most of us spend our lives avoiding.

We talk about patients who think they have another year or two and discover they may actually have a week or two, why “acceptance” might not actually be the goal, and why being afraid of saying the wrong thing can be so much worse than saying something imperfectly.

Because it turns out, there’s no instruction manual for dying — not for the person doing it, not for the people who love them, and apparently not even for the doctors.

We’re all just awkward humans trying to figure out how to show up for each other the best way we know how.

If this conversation moved you, follow Goodbye Moon for more honest conversations about death, dying, love, legacy, and the many ways we say goodbye.

And if it made you wonder why we wait until someone is gone to say the things that matter most, that question is exactly why The Goodbye Experience exists — creating meaningful goodbye gatherings while the people we love are still here to experience them.

Explore The Goodbye Experience:
https://thejewishdeathdoula.com/goodbyeexperience/

Connect with Sara:
https://www.instagram.com/jewishdeathdoula/

Connect with Dr. Matthew Tyler:
https://www.instagram.com/howtotrainyourdoctor/ 

What began as curiosity (and, in Mary’s words, a little bit of gossip) eventually became a way of looking at other people’s lives to ask some bigger questions: Were they happy? Were they loved? And when all was said and done, did the résumé really matter?

We talk about obituaries that are messy, hilarious, brutally honest, and sometimes downright savage — and why we shouldn’t suddenly airbrush someone’s life just because they died.

And we talk about what hundreds of dead people have taught Mary about being alive: that success might not look the way we’ve been taught, we’re so much more than our worst chapter, and sometimes the smallest details of a life end up mattering most.

Because maybe one of the best ways to think about how you want to live is to think about what will be said when you’re dead.

If this conversation moved you, follow Goodbye Moon for more honest conversations about death, dying, love, legacy, and the many ways we say goodbye.

And if it made you wonder why we wait until someone is gone to say the things that matter most, that question is exactly why The Goodbye Experience exists — creating meaningful goodbye gatherings while the people we love are still here to experience them.

Explore The Goodbye Experience:
https://thejewishdeathdoula.com/goodbyeexperience/

Connect with Sara:
https://www.instagram.com/jewishdeathdoula/

Read Mary’s Favorite Obituaries:
https://linktr.ee/tipsfromdeadpeople 

Connect with Mary:
https://www.instagram.com/tipsfromdeadpeople/ 

Lily works with family constellations and horses,  and is quite possibly the most wonderfully woo person I know. Our conversation goes everywhere from what horses seem to understand that humans don’t, to what happens when the dead are forgotten in a family system, to spirituality, God, healing, and the relationships we have with the people and animals we love after they’re gone.

We also talk about what it means to get to a place where you can genuinely say, If I die tonight, I’ve lived enough life — not because you don’t want to be alive, but because you’ve created a life you’re no longer afraid of living.

Because maybe grief doesn’t start when someone dies.

And maybe saying goodbye isn't only about a final moment.

Maybe part of learning how to say goodbye is learning how to fully be with someone while they're still here.

If this conversation moved you, follow Goodbye Moon for more honest conversations about death, dying, love, legacy, and the many ways we say goodbye.

And if it made you wonder why we wait until someone is gone to say the things that matter most, that question is exactly why The Goodbye Experience exists — creating meaningful goodbye gatherings while the people we love are still here to experience them.

Explore The Goodbye Experience:
https://thejewishdeathdoula.com/goodbyeexperience/

Connect with Sara:
https://www.instagram.com/jewishdeathdoula/

Work with Lily and the Herd:
https://www.lilyroth.org/

Connect with Lily:
https://www.instagram.com/lilyroth_31/

Ten years ago, Aleeza lost her mom, whom she describes as her best friend and one of the most loving people she’s ever known. In this conversation, she shares what it was like to be beside her as she died - or, as Aleeza puts it, as she “birthed her soul.”

We talk about:

• What it was like to witness her mom’s final breath
• Why Aleeza still talks to her mom ten years later
• The pieces of the people we love that continue to live through us
• How her parents shaped the way she thinks about love, family, and soulmates
• Why the person you choose isn’t just who you want to celebrate with — it’s who you want to struggle with
• One surprisingly powerful question to ask yourself when dating: Would I want this person giving my eulogy?

And maybe thinking about death can tell us something about who we want beside us while we’re still living.

If this conversation moved you, follow Goodbye Moon for more honest conversations about death, dying, love, legacy, and the many ways we say goodbye.

And if it made you wonder why we wait until someone is gone to say the things that matter most, that question is exactly why The Goodbye Experience exists — creating meaningful goodbye gatherings while the people we love are still here to experience them.

Explore The Goodbye Experience:
https://thejewishdeathdoula.com/goodbyeexperience/

Connect with Sara:
https://www.instagram.com/jewishdeathdoula

Connect with Aleeza:
https://www.instagram.com/aleezabenshalom/ 

I’m joined by my best friend, Channah Sarah Gabler, for a conversation about grief, gratitude, legacy, and the things we often leave unsaid.

After her grandmother entered the final stages of her life, Channah Sarah had the opportunity to sit beside her, share memories, express gratitude, and say goodbye while she was still here.

Together, we explore what happens when we choose to have the conversations that matter — and how those moments can bring healing, connection, and peace.

We talk about:

* The people who shape us and the pieces of them we carry forward

* Why we often look for inherited trauma but forget to look for inherited beauty

* How saying the things we feel can change the way we experience grief

* The power of creating meaningful goodbye experiences while we still can

Because goodbye doesn’t have to only happen after someone is gone.

Sometimes, we have the opportunity to gather, celebrate, share stories, and say the things that matter most while we are still together.

Welcome to Goodbye Moon.

If this conversation moved you, follow Goodbye Moon for more honest conversations about death, dying, love, legacy, and the many ways we say goodbye.

And if this conversation made you think, “Wait… why the heck do we wait until someone is gone to say the things that matter most?” -- you’re not alone. 

That question is exactly why The Goodbye Experience exists. Sara helps people create meaningful goodbye gatherings while they’re still here — a chance to celebrate a life, tell the stories, say the things we’re usually too uncomfortable to say, and create a goodbye that feels unapologetically you.

Learn more about Sara and her work: thejewishdeathdoula.com

Connect with Goodbye Moon: @jewishdeathdoula