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Yasmine Gonzales 🧿

@my_dearest_death

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Death & Grief Educator
Death Doula
Grief Facilitation 1:1 & Groups
Co-Founder @texasendoflifecollective

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Funeral directors + death doulas—we want you in this conversation!

What’s keeping us from working together? Where do our roles intersect, where do they need clearer boundaries, and what could meaningful collaboration look like?

Join @texasendoflifecollective on Zoom with Jennifer Lares @mullingmortician —funeral professional, educator, and so much more—for an open conversation about working across these two professions and, ultimately, supporting families well.

Jennifer has been traveling across North America, listening to and participating in conversations about this very topic at conferences and gatherings throughout the deathcare field. **Go check out @mullingmortician’s work**—and join us for the conversation.

This one is for death doulas and funeral directors across North America and beyond.

Bring your questions. Bring your experience. Come curious.

Thursday • 7 PM - 8:30 PM CDT
Free • Zoom • Eventbrite link in bio

Please share this with a funeral director or death doula who should be part of the conversation.

HUGE thank you to @deadgoodlegacies for the wonderful photos via Unsplash.

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The Texas End of Life Collective is rolling out our directory of local end-of-life practitioners. 🎉 Slowly but surely we are growing steadily in our mission to educate and support each other and our community.

If you’re a death worker or adjacent care professional in SATX and the surrounding area, and interested in doing this work in a connected, supportive way, click our link in bio for more info on our site, or send us a DM. 🤍

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We’re excited to start offering Death Cafes in San Antonio & the Hill Country. We’re registered with deathcafe.com online so you can keep up with future events there, too. Death Cafes exist worldwide!

Join us! Please RSVP in a DM or to texaseolcollective@gmail.com

When: Friday, September 11, 2026 from 2-3:30pm
Where: @flower_in_flour_ bakery and coffee shop
6915 Bandera Rd #104, SATX 78238

Our objective, based on the Death Cafe mission, is to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their lives. A Death Cafe is group directed with no agenda, objectives or themes. It is a group discussion rather than a grief support or counseling session. And we do this as people, often strangers, gather to eat cake, drink tea (or coffee) and discuss death.

Join us for this free event. A TXEOLC co-founder and collective member will be there to welcome you for discussion and community.

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We’re back—and we’re excited to share what we’ve been working on!

After a full summer and a little time away, we’re happy to introduce the new Texas End of Life Collective website.

Our mission is to connect our community with meaningful end-of-life education, trusted resources, and compassionate support, while cultivating collaboration among the death care professionals who serve San Antonio and the Hill Country.

Our website will be the hub for everything TXEOLC, including:

✨ A calendar of upcoming events, workshops, and gatherings—both virtual and in person

✨ A growing member directory, where you’ll be able to learn more about the professionals who make up our Collective.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing upcoming events, highlighting our members, sharing educational resources, and continuing to build a connected, informed, and compassionate community.

Whether you’re seeking support, looking to learn, or part of the death care community, we’re glad you landed here and look forward to connecting with you.

Visit our website to explore what’s new, and stay tuned as we continue to grow together.

🖤 Link in bio.

P.S. Shoutout to @deadgoodlegacies for providing the beautiful green burial photo 🤩 on the site.

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A beta tester sent me a message yesterday and I sat in my car in the Hyvee parking lot for twenty minutes before I could go inside.

She told me she'd recorded her grandmother the last month on OpenWhen (thankful for our beta testers!) Just one recording, sitting at her grandmother's kitchen table on a Saturday afternoon, asking her to tell stories about being seven years old.

Forty-five minutes long, nothing rehearsed. Her grandmother laughed at her own jokes the way she always did.

Her grandmother died on last week.

This is the message that's been making me cry for two days.

The loss is real, and I'm sitting with her family in it. But what I can't stop thinking about is the recording, her grandmother's voice asking what she made for lunch, the laugh nobody knew was the last one.

I keep thinking about the version of her sitting at that table on Saturday with her phone propped against the salt shaker. She didn't know what was coming. Neither did her grandmother. Just two people in a kitchen on a Saturday, and one of them pressed record.

That's the space OpenWhen lives in, the space between last month and this month, where you don't know how much time you have and you press record anyway.

If you've been thinking "someday," someday isn't always there. The recording you make on a Saturday isn't a goodbye, it's the part of them you get to keep.

OpenWhen exists for the families who know what it feels like to reach for a voice that isn't there anymore. Our platform lets you record messages and videos for your loved ones and deliver them exactly when they need them most.

To the woman who sent me that message — thank you. To the rest of you, we're looking for more beta testers for our app, DM LEGACY to test it today. 🤍

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recording a grandmother before she dies, last conversations with grandparents, preserving grandmother's voice, legacy realized through recording, recording someone before they die, preserving voices of elders, grief support voice recording, last recording of loved one, preserving family stories before loss, the recording you made on a Saturday

#GriefSupport #LifeAfterLoss #LeavingALegacy #Family #Grandmother

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What if I told you that some of the most meaningful end-of-life care happens when doulas and funeral professionals work together...not separately?

Honored to contribute to an article for funeral directors about the role of end-of-life doulas and the importance of collaboration in deathcare alongside @forget.me.not.doula and @my_dearest_death . These conversations matter because families deserve compassionate, informed, and holistic support before, during, and after a death.

End-of-life doulas are not here to replace funeral professionals. We work alongside them, helping families navigate emotional support, legacy work, vigil planning, education, and presence during one of life’s most vulnerable transitions.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to help create more awareness, understanding, and partnership within the deathcare community. Thank you @mullingmortician for making space for these important conversations and for recognizing the value of collaborative care.

The future of end-of-life care is community-centered, compassionate, and collaborative. 🤍

Have you ever heard of an end-of-life doula before today? Share your thoughts or questions in the comments below. 👇🏾

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* Other frameworks to consider that explain or influence how we show up are ideas personality systems like the Enneagram or Myers-Briggs, neurodivergence, etc. Thoughts? Drop them in the comments.

Next Collective meetups in May:
• Social meetup for coffee Friday, May 15 at @flower_in_flour_
•Classroom meetup Thursday, May 28 from 6:30-8pm

If you’re interested in joining please DM us to RSVP!
If you’re new to the group DM us for info / for an interest survey.

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We had our first official gathering last week! Thank you to everyone who showed up and shared openly.

We spent time reflecting on the work we do and how we talk about it out in the world.

There’s something powerful about finding the words—not just for ourselves, but for the people who need to find us.

Special thanks to @m.stagersrealtypartners and @drita_sellssanantonio for welcoming us—what an incredible space to support our deathcare community.

This is how the work grows—together. Care for the collective creates abundance for all.

In community,
Anthony @alongthewaycare & Yasmine @my_dearest_death

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The Texas End of Life Collective is growing — 20 members and climbing!

Please RSVP with a DM for our first “official” meeting in our new meeting space:

Thursday, March 26
6:30–8:00 PM
(Arrive at 6:00 PM if you need to bring dinner or want to socialize and catch up before we get started. We will begin promptly at 6:30 PM and close by 8:00 PM)

Location:
M. Stagers Realty Partners
5711 Northwest Pkwy., #101
San Antonio, TX 78249
(near IH-10 / De Zavala / Huebner)

This will be a hybrid meeting. If you can’t attend in person, a Zoom link will be provided so you can join us virtually. We would love to see as many of you there as possible.

Agenda Highlights:
• The vision, goals, and business structure of the Collective
• Survey results — what current members are asking for
• Marketing, networking, and community education: how we share our work and strengthen local visibility

Group exercises:
– Who are you? What is your current job or scope of practice + what do you want to grow into?
– What do you call yourself (your professional title) in death care work
– Crafting and refining your elevator pitch

We’re building a collaborative, professionally grounded network for end-of-life workers in San Antonio and the Hill Country. If you’re an end-of-life practitioner or work in an adjacent field and are interested in joining us, send us a DM and tell us a little about yourself. We’ll share an interest survey and invite.

In community,
Anthony @alongthewaycare & Yasmine @my_dearest_death

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Care for the collective creates abundance for all.

Death care has long been rooted in community. We’re meant to do this work together. Over the years, we’ve heard the same thing: end-of-life practitioners don’t want to do this work alone. We want spaces to gather, learn, collaborate, support one another and our communities.

So, we’re cultivating a network for death workers across San Antonio and the Hill Country of Texas to do just that.

If you’re a deathcare professional or organization supporting individuals and families through serious illness, aging, caregiving, end of life, grief, or post-death matters, we’d love to hear from you.
DM us or email texaseolcollective@gmail.com and let’s connect.

In community,
Yasmine Gonzales (@my_dearest_death) & Anthony Morales (@alongthewaycare)

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#TexasEndOfLifeCollective
#TexasEndOfLifeDoula
#TexasDeathDoula
#SanAntonioDeathDoula
#DeathDoulaCommunity

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