*|MC:SUBJECT|*

View this email in your browser

You are receiving this email because you (or someone who loves you) signed up to receive updates about Holding Space, a family care home hospice project in the works at 34 Blue Ridge Avenue in West Asheville, home of Gabriel Inton and Erik Iverson.

It's time for another potluck!

Please join us this Wednesday, October 17th from 6pm to 9pm for our fifth monthly Community Potluck held at our home at 34 Blue Ridge Avenue in West Asheville. We welcome this opportunity to share a meal, show support, and make connections among friends old and new, neighbors, and others working in end of life. Bring a dish and a friend or family. Please leave pets at home.

Renovations Continue

Floors are in the works in the main house. The front three bedrooms are the last on the main floor to be refinished. Pulling up the carpet revealed that one of the bedrooms was built over the original porch, so there was only a floating subfloor under the carpet. We found some reclaimed heart pine to match the rest of the downstairs which was salvaged from a Biltmore Forest home built in the same year (1921). In the below photo, you will see the installed flooring, previously painted, before being sanded down.

Upon pulling back the carpet in the living room, we have found numerous patches from years of renovations. We are salvaging some heart pine from the hallway to fill in the missing flooring runs. Attendees of this week's potluck might get a sneak peak!

We are saying goodbye to the "old movie theater", "psychedelic" or otherwise described carpeting in the main living area in the main house.

Sneak Preview: The new countertops have been delivered!
Can you guess what they were salvaged from?

A cold snap a few nights ago filled the sunroom with houseplants from their porch summer home. A majority of the plants will be moving into their winter home upstairs in the conservatory.

The upstairs great room has been the site for doula collective meetings, and will soon house the plants as colder weather approaches.

Common Ground and Growth

We continue to meet many thoughtful and kind people in this work, who are open to sharing their experiences and perspectives as we make our journey here.

Amy Wright Glenn is an author, birth and death doula, and chaplain who was introduced to us through mutual friend Jay Hill of PechaKucha Night Asheville and came by to see the house at the end of September. Her book Holding Space (wonderfully coincidental) has been a welcome addition to the house library.

Tom Comstock MD is the co-founder of Compassion House, an Omega Home Network member, in the Atlanta area who continues to support our efforts here as we take steps to establish our own 501c3 status. Tom was introduced to us by Caroline Yongue of Center for End of Life Transitions and Carolina Memorial Sanctuary here in Asheville.

Marlisa Mills of Blue Lotus - Creative Approaches to End of Life Choices based in Black Mountain, NC has supported our project by furnishing the house with the piano, table and chairs, and bedroom suite. Through Blue Lotus, Marlisa and Annie Gustely hold creative grief and end of life workshops and events that strengthen and deepen this work in the WNC community.

Thank you to these amazing people for the work they do and sharing it with us, the people who connected us, and the many others who have offered words of encouragement and resources. It is heartening to know that this work continues to be wanted, needed, and happening around the country and here in Asheville. We look forward to growing these connections and the ones yet to form.