LOS ANGELES — On Valentine's Day morning four years ago, a group of end-of-life doulas arrived at the Northern California home of Barbara Hazilla just hours after she died.
The volunteers cleansed Barbara's body, used dry ice to help slow decomposition and then wrapped her body in a shroud of scarves and blankets.
Barbara succumbed to a rare form of breast cancer that was diagnosed in 2010. After more than 30 years as a physician watching patients die in hospitals, only later to be handed off to funeral directors who for 150 years have dominated the American death experience, Barbara decided to be taken care of at home.
