Hello all. Joe here and welcome to Sunday Nice Things. My friend Kristen is a woman in her

50s who's never lost anyone close to her. So her decision to embark on the journey of becoming a

deaf dula could at first seem like a strange one. But when you get to know her, it does make

perfect sense. Kristen is a person who is extraordinarily curious, intensely empathetic, and frankly, she's,

she's so well-suited to being a death dula.

She truly is.

This podcast is about this journey.

You're going to join Kristen as she tackles the universal experience of death with humor, honesty,

and sincere introspection. Through with humor, honesty, and sincere

introspection. Through personal stories, interviews, and her journey to becoming a death

dula, she explores how we mourn and how to prepare for life's final chapter. This one is for

anyone curious about life, loss, and finding laughter along the way. Hello, darlings. I'm Kristen Vermilia, and this is the very first inaugural, initial

debut, maiden. Oh, I like that maiden. Like, sounds like maiden voyage. I love a maritime

reference. It is the maiden episode of my podcast called Death Virgin. I'm a 56-year-old American

woman living in Zurich, Switzerland, and I am woefully unprepared for the inevitable phone

call that's coming with the awful news that someone I love, someone very close to me, has died.

I haven't lost anyone super close to me. That's why this is such a big deal. And at my age, this is incredibly rare. And thank goodness here in the studio, there's so much wood. I wish you could see it. It's so beautiful. I'm knocking all of the wood. So I'm making a film, also called Death Virgin, and this podcast to see if I can learn to mourn, to practice before I have to do it for real.

And since death and mourning are pretty universal, and there's a lot to talk about and explore, this podcast could and may go on forever.

So strap in, strap on, strap up, strap over. I think that's not even quite right. Strap on is definitely not right. Oh, I don't even know what that means. It's going to be a bumpy ride, but that's, I don't really want to say it's going to be a bumpy ride because that's, that's from all about Eve. And it's not even, it's a bumpy night. That's not even the correct quote. You know, quote you know the correct quote is like fasten your seat belts it's going to be a bumpy night

but it's misquoted all the time and I think um oh who's the name that guy that wrote it

directed it I don't even know but anyway so it's it's gonna be bumpy because

sometimes bumps are fun.

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