LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — People across the world, especially in Latin American communities, will take to festivals, plan parades, and devote hours to honoring those they’ve lost during the November 1 and 2 holiday, Día de los Muertos.
Lexingtonian Lauren Hunter-Smith, also known as the Bluegrass Death Doula, believes there’s much to learn from the centuries-old holiday.
“With Day of the Dead, we're being upfront with death, we're dealing with death, we're being culturally involved and celebrating it, and there's a ton we can learn from that,” said Hunter-Smith.
In her profession, Hunter-Smith helps people navigate death, end-of-life planning, funerals and vigils. This Day of the Dead, she’s making death a little less scary.
Gesturing to a vibrantly-painted homemade mailbox, Hunter-Smith said, “Anyone you've lost, you can write a letter, place it here, this evening after the Day of the Dead festival I'll collect them and they'll be ceremoniously cremated or 'delivered by airmail.'”
The Ghost Post as Hunter-Smith calls it, has collected letters at Lexington’s Third Street Stuff for the last week.
The closure and comfort of writing a letter to someone who has passed costs nothing but a bit of time.
“You have this opportunity to put an ending on something, to put some closure with something that maybe wasn't there previously,” said the death doula.
Even if you choose not to drop your letter in the Ghost Post, Hunter-Smith recommends trying the exercise. If you don’t know how to start, she has some guidance.
“What I always recommend is, 'I love you, I miss you, I'm sorry, I forgive you,’ and if you start with those things, you've covered all the heavy stuff and you can talk about what you want to talk about.”
After its stay at Third Street Stuff, the Ghost Post made its way to the Living Arts and Science Center’s Day of the Dead festival Wednesday night, where Hunter-Smith later privately removed the letters and ceremoniously cremated them.
