Christa Ovenell, Founder at Death’s Apprentice Education & Planning, was drawn to Deathcare work for decades, but given that she barely passed grade nine science class, a career in palliative nursing didn’t seem attainable. Every time she looked into becoming a funeral director, she realized she would have to give up her corner office, go back to school for two years, and literally become an apprentice (at nearly 50). That felt really scary and didn’t seem like a practical choice, but she couldn’t put it out of her mind.

Eventually, she decided that her life needed to include death in a radical way, and so she resigned from her job as Principal of Canada’s largest international college, left her position on the provincially appointed Council of Articulation and Transfer and applied to be a student at funeral school. She completed the gruelling apprenticeship at a large corporate funeral home. She’s now proud to work with a local, woman-owned & independent facility that is a leader in family-led and alternative death-caring practices.

Education is in her DNA: her mom was a lifelong teacher, her eldest is an academic and her niece and nephew work in schools too. We have a lot to learn as a society about death, because for too long we have been ok with denying its important lessons. She was initially very shy about admitting she was a 50-year-old apprentice, but now she knows that the “beginner’s mind” is one in which the best learnings can happen. She’s very proud to be an apprentice to life’s greatest teacher. The lessons she’s learning will continue right up till the day she dies.