On the Threshold of Worlds

Tending My Father Before and After His Last Breath

On the Threshold of Worlds, published by Front Porch Republic Books, will be released this September 2026.

(From the back cover)    When a loved one comes to the threshold of their existence, and their last breath nears, who will tend their body? Who will wash them, pray with them, sit vigil with them? These questions, like this book, are at once practical and mythical. In telling the story of his father’s journey with early-Alzheimer’s, of his final breaths, and how family and friends tended his body afterwards without help from the funeral industry, Joseph Orso inspires the reader through elemental, illuminated grief.

In a world that has forgotten our basic responsibilities to each other, On the Threshold of Worlds is a tale for a time of remembering. In a techno-obsessed age that sees suffering and death as glitches, this book invites readers into an age made holy again by the work of human hands. Exploring both personal and cultural loss of meaning, it makes a case that tending a beloved’s body after death is an ancient inheritance, essential for remembering what we are as human beings.

Where to Buy

Coming September 1, 2026.

Available anywhere you buy books.

“What we've forgotten about caring for our afflicted and our dead, Orso reminds us. This is not just a book about losing a loved one to the vanishing disease of Alzheimer's or the healing powers of home funerals. It's an anthem to a love of place and people through all the momentous and interstitial moments of a devastating illness, a family in grief, a community of healing, and how the old ways, the knowing ways, led them home.”

Lee Webster

former president of Green Burial Council International and of the National Home Funeral Alliance

“It can happen around death that we step off to the side of ordinary time. We’re undone in a way that is wholly fitting. There’s work that gets done, over there, in that other time: culture work, the kind that reaches beyond the circle of those gathered in mourning. This book is a gift brought back from such a time of undoing: a small book, but large in its generosity and in the weight of what it has to tell us. May it be part of a spreading rumour: that we still carry in our bodies the memory of how to begin again, to carry that weight, to take up the work of culture with those around us, even this late in the day.”

Dougald Hine

author of "At Work in the Ruins" and co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project

“Death is the ultimate personal act. No one can share it with us. But as human beings, it is our responsibility to ease this most difficult passage for our loved ones the best that we can, and to care for the person, the image of God, with love and compassion after they die. This book is a meditation on that process, of life and death, love and burial, done as beautifully as it can be done. It is well worth reading, and it can be a model for anyone, Christian or not, who is interested in reclaiming, from the industrial machine, the basic human act of care for our loved ones after they die. The physical process is so simple – if you’ve ever washed a baby, you can do it – but the power and spiritual benefits of this simple act are enormous.”

Protodeacon Mark Barna

author of "A Christian Ending: A Handbook for Burial in the Ancient Christian Tradition"

“In a culture that fears death and has long grown accustomed to outsourcing our most intimate responsibilities, how do we revive our sacred role in tending our departed? Joseph Orso weaves a highly readable tapestry of memories caring for his father through dementia and dying and recovers the holy work our culture has forgotten. With reverence and compassion, this book paves the way for reintroducing the sacred practices that have been removed from the home and provides inspiration to restore an essential part of our humanity: caring for each other not just in life, but also death.”

Ruth Gaskovski

School of the Unconformed

“Like so much else in modern life, we have outsourced death. This is the beautiful story of how one family took it back. When Jim Orso died, his family washed the body, dug the grave and created rituals that were meaningful, personal and lasting. Not all of us can follow the Orso family example, but we can all learn from it and be enriched by it. I love this book.”

Ari L. Goldman

author of "Living a Year of Kaddish"