Our Mission
The Mission of the Lily House is to reclaim death as a sacred human experience with less fear and more love—because the work of dying belongs to all of us.
Care
At the Lily House, we provide around-the-clock, holistic, and compassionate end-of-life care—before, during, and after death—at no cost to those in need.
We support our residents to live as fully as possible until the time of death by providing personalized care and unconditional love, offering dignity and agency to each individual.
We guide our residents in conscious dying—an active engagement in the dying experience that includes mindfulness, acceptance, and intentionality.
Our care extends to family and friends of residents, ensuring they also receive the guidance and support they need during their loved one’s final days.
During active dying, we provide a peaceful presence and sit vigil with our residents. We hold space and bear witness to the sacred moment of a final breath.
After death, we provide time and space for family and friends to gather as we lay our residents in honor and offer optional home wakes, shrouding and/or flower-adorning ceremonies.
All of this care takes place in a beautiful home nestled amongst the pines within walking distance and view of Wellfleet Bay.

Community
The Lily House is a community of family, friends, neighbors, staff, volunteers, and supporters joined together to care for each other at the end of life, so none of us have to worry about dying alone.
We offer community-based educational programs—including workshops, conversation events, film viewings, and book discussions—to help bring a contemplative awareness to our shared mortality.
We host an annual community gathering of remembrance for those who have died at the Lily House and for all those we have loved. We hold remembrance as a sacred act that becomes even more powerful when we do it together.
We are part of an ecosystem of local community organizations that support the overall well-being of our communities.
We serve the entire Cape and Islands, extending our reach to as many communities as possible.
We engage in community-centric fundraising initiatives, which prioritizes the entire community over individual organizations and encourages mutual support between nonprofits.
Our work is made possible by the radical generosity of community-based giving that emphasizes paying it forward. All are invited to make a donation of any amount at any time.
Cultural Change
Through the work of the Lily House, we are contributing to a nationwide cultural transformation in how we approach death and dying.
We are caring for each other at the end-of-life with less fear and more love, creating an environment that supports the highest quality end-of-life experience possible.
We are reclaiming our human right to care for each other in death, and modeling what it looks like to do so in community.
We are returning end-of-life care back into the hands and hearts of family, friends, and community.
We are cultivating a sense of communal belonging by engaging in the work of dying together.
We are providing educational resources and guidance so we can make informed and meaningful decisions about how we wish to live and die.
We are nurturing a conscious relationship to our mortality—daring to explore feelings of gratitude, curiosity, and even joy in association with death.
Our Values
We acknowledge death and dying as a natural human experience with the potential for deep transformation. In the presence of death, we bring love, humility, and an openness to receive all that death has to teach us.
We honor the sacredness of living and dying. Our work is guided by a compassionate, contemplative, and joyful approach to care and is at the center of all that we do.
We recognize that
due to systemic inequities and implicit bias, the circumstances and causes of death are inordinately influenced by race, gender, class, sexuality, faith, ability, statuses of documentation and migration, and/or other aspects of our identities.
We acknowledge that the
depth and complexity of the human experience—in life and death— extends beyond the boundaries of identity categories. We are committed to creating a community home that is intentionally inclusive and welcoming for all.
We recognize
differences in levels of wealth and access to resources, and agree to treat all who enter our home with dignity and respect.
We acknowledge our blind spots and are
committed to on-going diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism training for our board, staff, and volunteers.
We honor the
Wampanoag people as the original inhabitants and stewards of
Tuttomnest, the Wellfleet peninsula on which the Lily House is located.
