THE OPEN DOOR PROJECT
What happens when we open the door and invite death in?
The Open Door Project is our labor of love—and an invitation to step into conversations about dying, death, grief, and mortality that too often happen behind closed doors.
As your friendly neighborhood death doulas, we believe these conversations don’t have to be solely clinical, nor overly laden, or frightful and morbid. They can be curious. Intimate. Funny. Tender. Unexpected. They can even make life feel more vibrant.
So we’re opening the door.
Our gatherings are bespoke experiences designed to explore mortality in ways that invite curiosity rather than prescribe answers. Sometimes we’ll talk. Sometimes we’ll make something. Sometimes we’ll share food, stories, music, rituals, or simply a little time together.
Each experience offers a different way to dip a toe into terrain we may instinctively avoid.
Because death isn’t something that arrives only at the end of life; it’s part of being alive.
And maybe when we make a little more room for it, something surprising happens: life gets expansive.
Come join us. Bring your curiosity. Bring your questions. Bring whatever you already know—or don’t know—about
dying and death.
The door is open.
THE HOUSE
The Open Door Project takes place in Sarah’s well-loved home, a house with its own history of gathering, community, and death.
The home was built and previously owned by members of the Hickey family, Alameda residents since the 1800s. Dolores Hickey, the last member of the family to own the house, died here in 2016.
Her obituary described a woman who was deeply involved with her family, community, and friends—and who regularly hosted gatherings in her home. It said simply that “she always made everyone feel welcomed.”
We like to think the house is continuing that tradition.
People have gathered here before. Someone lived a whole life here. Someone died here. And now, once again, the door is opening—to conversation, curiosity, connection, and the possibility of making a little more room for mortality in our lives.
Welcome in.
JOIN US
about your hosts
Michael and Sarah were introduced by a fellow Alamedan a few years ago, who rightfully imagined they'd have a lot to talk about. From their first conversation, it became apparent that they shared a belief that there was so much more we could bring to the experience of dying and death.
Having a combined three+ decades in the end-of-life space, they asked how they could bring the beauty of life into the shadows that so often typify our collective experience.
Open Door Project is this good intention made manifest in their own community of caring. Not only do they bring their years of solid experience, but also their creative souls, curious minds, and giant hearts.