Stones and Bones

 Stones and Bones was a two-part participatory event for those mourning a loved one without access to the closure of a funeral. In a setting adorned with bleached bones, white mushrooms, and delicate spiderwebs, guests gathered for foraged refreshments and a Death Café facilitated by Amy Pence-Brown, then inscribed raw clay bowls with messages to their departed. A second gathering—meant to take place around a communal fire with a grief soup ritual—was halted by my own brush with death and the arrival of the pandemic. Unfinished by fate, Stones and Bones became a memorial not only for the ones we’ve lost, but for the rituals we never had. I plan to revisit it in the future.