Walking with Love Through Life’s Final Threshold
If you’ve found your way here, you may be walking alongside someone you love in their final chapter, or preparing for your own passage. You may be seeking support, ceremony, or simply a hand to hold through the mystery of dying.
As a death midwife and ceremonial guide, I walk beside individuals and families during life’s most tender threshold. I bring presence, ritual, experince and a deeper understanding — so death is not faced in fear, but honored as the sacred transition that it is.
About Me
My name is Barbie Herron Conkling. I am a mother, artist, Reiki practitioner, and ceremonial death midwife. My path into this work has been shaped by profound personal experience — most deeply, walking alongside my son, Lyon, through his journey with cancer until his final breath on December 17, 2023. I have also had the honor of guiding many others through their sacred transitions Home.
Since 2019, I have served as a death midwife, holding space for individuals and families with tenderness, presence, and ceremony. I bring to this work the sensitivity of a Reiki practitioner, attuning to both the seen and unseen needs of those I serve. Alchemizing my own experiences through grief and loss in order to be of service to those in need.
I have learned that death is not only an ending, but a threshold — one that deserves the same love, care, and ceremony as birth.
My background weaves together many threads: a former esthetician who tended beauty and care, a sober guide grounded in recovery, and a deep calling to medicine and healing. With over 13 years in recovery myself, I bring compassion, steadiness, and trust to each family I walk beside.
This is not just my work. This is my life’s true purpose.
My Offerings ❊
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Gentle companionship, bedside presence, and the holding of sacred space during the final days and hours. With years of caregiving experience—and an understanding of the medical language that can often feel overwhelming—I bridge the medical and spiritual worlds with calm, steadiness, and reverence. My role is to create a safe and comforting environment, whether at home or in the hospital.
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Through personalized rituals and sacred practices, I support individuals and families in honoring the threshold between life and death. This may include creating sacred altars, designing legacy projects or living memorials, and offering death rites and Reiki energy work. Together, we can craft meaningful ceremonies—before and after transition—that reflect your family’s values, traditions, and love.
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I help lift the weight of end-of-life planning, offering guidance with advanced directives, living wills, notary coordination, after care arrangements, and organizing celebration of life ceremonies. I also serve as a neutral liaison for families, easing communication and reducing stress during tender times. When held with care, these practical details can become part of the sacred passage itself.
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Grief does not end when a loved one takes their last breath—it unfolds in waves, layers, and seasons. In the sacred space I call the Lyon’s Den, I sit with individuals and families as they process their loss, offering gentle presence, deep listening, and compassionate guidance. Together we create room for grief to be expressed and honored in all its forms.
For those who were unable to have a ceremony at the time of death, I help design and hold post-death rituals and memorials—spaces where remembrance, beauty, and healing can take root. Whether through shared storytelling, altar building, or personalized ceremony, I support families in weaving grief into a sacred passage, allowing love to remain present and alive.
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For those walking the path of sobriety—or those longing to make meaningful change while facing the weight of grief and loss—I offer compassionate guidance rooted in my own recovery journey. With over a decade of sobriety, I know the gift it brings: the ability to truly feel life in all its depth, even when it feels impossibly heavy.
Together, we explore spiritual principles and practices that nurture resilience, clarity, and self-compassion. This may include ritual, meditation, gentle accountability, or simply the steady presence of someone walking beside you. My role is to hold safe and sacred space, helping you remember your wholeness and supporting you as you step into the life you are choosing to create.
My intention in this work is simple yet profound: to remind you that in sobriety, we can face anything—and even in our deepest grief, we are never alone.
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Each blanket in this collection is a one-of-a-kind vintage Kantha quilt, hand-stitched in India from 5–7 layers of sari, bound together by a single running thread—the thread that unites us all. Lined with soft minky faux fur, they are perfectly weighted to bring warmth and ease. These blankets offer comfort in hospital rooms, during treatment, and in the tender final days of life. For many families, they become a sacred keepsake—the last tangible earthly embrace their loved one’s soul passed through, held forever in memory.
Support Tailored to Every Journey
End-of-life support is not just my work — it is my heart’s calling. Support should honor both the energy given and the accessibility every soul deserves.
Contribution
End-of-life support is not just my work — it is my heart’s calling.
To honor the time, presence, and energy I give, my rate begins at $100 per hour.
Your contribution allows me to continue this sacred work with integrity, devotion, and love.
Accessible Care
I believe compassionate care should be accessible to all.
For those who may not have the full means, I offer a sliding scale. Together, we’ll find an exchange that feels balanced and aligned for both of us.
If you’re uncertain where you fall on the scale, please reach out — we’ll find what feels right..
Where I Serve
Offering in-person support throughout Los Angeles, Ventura, San Gabriel, Santa Barbara, and San Diego counties, as well as remote guidance through FaceTime and phone.
Wherever you are, presence and care can be shared.
“Barbie, thank you for being my mom’s friend and her spiritual guide as she approached the end of her life. You helped make her transition to death, something so devastating, so beautiful. I don’t want to imagine having to go through this without your gentle support.”
Chad P.
From the Families I’ve Walked Beside
“Mom…you guided all of us through loosing Lyon. You took the fear away and made it a really beautiful experience that I will cherish for the rest of my life. And more recently you walked my wonderful mother in-law to the veil. It feels as though you were without a doubt put on this earth to do this work.”
Bella P.
“Barbie, thank you so much for helping me with my mom a couple of weeks ago. She got her “Angel Wings” that night! I’m sure due to all your love and guidance for me. I am forever indebted. Love you to pieces.”
Kathleen A.
Ceremony Philosophy
In many cultures, ceremony marks life’s beginnings and endings. In our modern world, death has too often been stripped of this sacredness. Replaced by an empty void and heavy fear.
I believe ceremony allows us to pause, to honor, and to hold grief in a container of love. It invites beauty, presence, and reverence back into the final chapter of life.
My mission is to gently and lovingly change the narrative surrounding this final right of passage and reclaim our death rites that we lost over a century ago.
Open the
Conversation
Whether you’re seeking guidance, presence, or simply someone to hold space, I would be honored to connect. Leave a few details below, and I’ll reach out soon.
barbieherron1008@gmail.com
(310) 388-7211