Burial Service
3 February 2026: Burial Service
Everyone is invited to a graveside service at Penn Forest Natural Burial Park, 121 Colorado Street, Verona PA 15147 on Wednesday, February 4th at 3 pm.
Please carpool if at all possible and park in the main cemetery parking lot. We will process to the gravesite from there.
You are invited to wear clothing and footwear, such as snow boots, that are most comfortable for the frigid weather and a walk through the woods. We will not have access to indoor space, but we will have a few folding chairs available for the service.
Hanna asked for folks to consider bringing “…a soft natural object that will become part of a layer between the soil and the board I rest on.”
Arrival: February 1, 2026, 10:40pm
2 February 2026: Arrival
Johanna Hendrika du Plessis, born January 17th, 1977 in Bellville, Western Cape, South Africa, died at approximately 10:40pm in Pittsburgh, PA, creating the brightest part of the night’s snow moon, on Imbolc, the beginning of spring, February 1st, 2026, during a rare moment the many who have been surrounding her in person had all stepped away to prepare medications, play a silly game, or sleep or bathe, while countless surrounded her and us from a far.
There will be a burial service at Penn Forest Natural Burial Park in Pittsburgh sometime this week. Details to follow as soon as arrangements are final.
People who have been touched by Hanna’s life are invited to add their comments to her message board: hannaduplessis.com/messageboard
We welcome donations to support the development and publication of Hanna’s writing and the continuation of her work: hannaduplessis.com/donate
More from us soon.
Shiploads of gratitude and love to you all.
Important Update: It Is Time...
26 January 2026: It Is Time...
Dear ones,
With Hanna’s increasing tiredness, dependence on the ventilator, and difficulties with phlegm, we have sensed that she is in a new phase. Here is a short video from Hanna, letting us all know about her decision.
As we write this, Hanna is planning to make her transition starting this weekend. We will be sure to keep you informed as this all unfolds.
There is heavy snow this week in Pittsburgh. We have backup power for all her machines and extra supplies on hand. Please know there will likely not be capacity for visits and the folks who are with Hanna will probably not be able to respond to inquiries or requests. A lot of waking time is taken up with cough assist and nebulizer and suction and comfort adjustments.
Hanna is so beyond grateful for all the love and care in this community. Stay warm and safe out there. The beautiful story we have been telling together is not ending, but it may be about to change to a new chapter.
We will send more updates in days to come.
Marc
A message from Hanna
Dear far ones,
It pains me that I cannot say goodbye in person and that you can’t be together at my grave. As I become more isolated, the feeling that we belong to each other grows. I feel my love and gratitude for you. I’ve experienced deaths that just went by because I could not be at the funeral or in community. So the loss went unacknowledged and settled in my bones, making my steps a little heavier. I’d like my death to become an invitation to stop for a moment and feel, held in the embrace of fellow travelers.
Some of my friends—people in the community that has held and sustained me—have offered to host gatherings, in person or online, where people can come together in shared love and loss. It needn’t be a big deal. A small group is great, and it can be wherever you want it to be. They may reach out to you, we will list some of them on this site, or you may choose to gather with your people in your own way.
I hope my passing can be an occasion for gathering, for people to hold and sustain one another. This is an invitation to not let death—mine or others’—go unmarked. It would comfort me to know that my people will be together.
With so much love,
Hanna
Grieving Hanna From Wherever You Are: Resources
Here are some resources for people who find themselves grieving from afar, offered in support of your process, your being.
A place to leave a message
We’ve set up a page on Hanna’s site where you can leave messages and memories. We can’t promise Hanna will see them all, though we will do our best to read them to her. And the page will remain as a memorial collection of messages, thoughts, wishes, poems, gratitude,… whatever you choose to record.
A fearful thing, to love…
I leave you with a poem I have offered here before, and which is in the foreground for me this week. The way the ones we love become woven into our lives, the inherent certain risk of love, memorably and vulnerably expressed.
. . .
‘Tis a fearful thing
to love what death can touch.
A fearful thing
to love, to hope, to dream, to be –
to be,
And oh, to lose.
A thing for fools, this,
And a holy thing,
a holy thing
to love.
For your life has lived in me,
your laugh once lifted me,
your word was gift to me.
To remember this brings painful joy.
‘Tis a human thing, love,
a holy thing, to love
what death has touched.
. . .
By Yehuda Halevi, or maybe Chaim Stern
(Authorship is tricky. It’s either a hundred years old, or a thousand.)
New Year Wish from Hanna
January 2026: A New Year Wish From Hanna
Dear folks,
Here is a New Year’s blessing Hanna wrote and recorded in 2022. (The version Hanna reads is just a little different than the one in the picture.)
click image to enlarge
Writing now to you—the extended family connected through the damned mystery of Hanna’s illness—it’s like looking out across a lacy living fabric. A net, alive. I feel… it’s not exactly gratitude. It’s more like wonder. Thank you all. Sending all those wishes from Hanna out across the net. Peace to you. Deep roots to you, and sun on your branches.
Marc
. . .
A version of this poem is also available here as a printed greeting card. (South Africans, one of my aims for the coming year is to establish local printing and distribution of Hanna’s cards and books for you. For now, I’m sorry that shipping of these cards from the US is prohibitively expensive.)
December 2025: Money Update
December 2025: Money Update
Hello folks,
This is Marc writing. In an October post called “Money Talk,” we introduced a way to visualize the money part of Hanna’s care. This is the first of a series of regular updates on that picture, so those of you who are concerned about this can see the picture of where we are on this front. (There’s more in that post, like a picture of the history of incoming and outgoing funds.)
The current picture
Thank you
We SO appreciate your generous response to our post in October. It is… humbling, encouraging, a wonder. Thank you.
What’s changed
Our monthly “burn rate”—the amount we spend each month on care—went down a little in October and November. Dear Amanda, the wonderful caregiver who was so much a part of the Careforce fabric for so long, had to step back to respond to changes in her family situation. Another dear person, Rodiat, is now with Hanna several days a week, but she too is moving on at the end of December. So while we are spending a little less, the load on volunteers is not less. And the work continues to identify, vet, hire and train someone new.
What’s the same
We do our best to maintain a three-month cushion in the balance we have on hand. That lets us operate without the added stress of low funds, while also keeping an eye on the future. As you can see, that cushion is now a little less than our goal. (This is our “survival” figure. The “thriving” figure would add funding to better support our volunteers, expenses after Hanna’s death, and future publication of Hanna’s work.)
How to help
If you are able to give, the easiest is to go through GiveButter. One-time contributions are great. Monthly donations are great too—a way for you to manage things and for us to have foresight.
Pass it on?
Might someone else in your world be interested in Hanna’s story and able to support her care, life and work? Do pass on this link, or a link to the GiveButter campaign: givebutter.com/hanna-care.
Thank you
Here in the Northern Hemisphere the days are shortening, the leaves have fallen, the air is cool. We think of our South African friends whose long days are filled with warmth and blossoms. All of us living our days, embracing the season, different but connected. There’s poetry there. I’ll let you find it for yourself. <smile>
Much love,
Marc
Reminder: Hanna's video viewing Saturday 15 Nov, 1pm US Eastern, 8pm SA
Choosing to See Zoom Viewing, November 15
Tomorrow! We can watch Hanna’s film together.
Saturday November 15, 1:00pm US Eastern, 8:00pm South Africa time.
See the film with Hanna, have a little time of reflection, conversation, and Q&A after the film.
RSVP Below
Learn more about the film and watch short clips here:
https://okaythen.net/choosing-to-see/
This is the film Hanna wrote, Erica Wessels voiced, and Marc Rettig created for the Woordfees 2025 festival in South Africa—a 35-minute gift of snapshots from Hanna’s life, each with its own visual style.
It has been a dream of Hanna’s to engage with the dynamics of race there in her home, so this was a tremendous gift—a chance to speak about the possibility of racial healing.
In coming weeks we will make the film freely available. Soon after, we’ll offer an edition for leaders and groups that includes resources for hosting group reflection, dialogue, and imagination sessions.
Attending? Please RSVP at the bottom of this page.
Choosing to See: Racial Healing is Possible, by Hanna du Plessis
Choosing to See:
Racial Healing is Possible
by Hanna du Plessis
Read by Erica WesselsA film by Marc Rettig
A powerful suite of illustrated personal moments by Hanna du Plessis
What does it take to stay in the room when everything in you wants to leave?
This visual meditation invites you into one woman’s journey from racial blindness toward authentic cross-racial relationship—not as a hero’s story, but as evidence that transformation is possible. Through found footage, pen-and-ink illustration and watercolor, we experience her moments of rupture and repair: a gift of buttons that breaks open denial, a protest where white silence becomes unbearable, a fountain where three women sit together in genuine belonging, a course on race where an invisible hand asks, “Who is the one leaving?”
South African author, artist, and change facilitator Hanna du Plessis, now dying of ALS, offers this work as invitation: your small courageous choices—to face uncomfortable truths, to open doors to relationship, to persist—create the soil from which a different world will grow. Racial healing is possible, even if it takes generations.
Written by Hanna du Plessis
Performed by Erica Wessels
Videography by Maranie Staab
Film by Marc Rettig
35 minutes
“...If I really listened to her pain, it would break my defenses and lead me straight into the forgotten neighborhood of my subconscious. I was afraid to enter that neighborhood....”
Clips
Clip 1: “I wrote these episodes to show you…”
Clip 2: The interior door
Clip 3: I’m stopped by an invisible hand
Choosing to See: Racial Healing is Possible
Written by Hanna du Plessis
Performed by Erica Wessels
Video art and production: Marc Rettig
Videographer: Maranie Staab
Music
Cello moments thanks to SamuelFJohans and Freesound Community, Pixabay
Closing credits: “Work to Be Done” by Sarah Nutting of MaMuse. www.mamuse.org
Art
Created by Marc Rettig in conversation with MidJourney,
using styles derived from Hanna du Plessis’ body of work.
Consultants
Joe Seamans and Mark Knobil
Translator
Christine Fourie
An Okay Then Production
Made in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
© Copyright 2025 Hanna du Plessis, Marc Rettig, and Okay Then LLC
All rights reserved
Group Viewing of Hanna's video!
Choosing to See Zoom Viewing, December 13
1:00pm US Eastern, 8:00pm South Africa
Hello all.
As many of you know, Hanna was invited to participate in the annual Woordfees arts festival in South Africa. She wrote seven short personal essays describing moments in her journey toward racial healing. Read by Erica Wessels (who voiced the audiobook of “Bedsores and Bliss) and illustrated by Marc Rettig, the result is a 35-minute film of deep beauty and reflection.
Now the festival is over, and we’d like to give you all a chance to see the film. We are holding a group viewing event Saturday, November 15, at 1:00pm US Eastern time, 8:00pm South Africa time. See the flyer below.
This won’t be the only opportunity to see it—we will announce broad availability later this year. But this is a chance to see it with Hanna, to have a little time of reflection and conversation after the film, and for a question-and-answer time. It will be special.
Attending? Please RSVP at the bottom of this page.
October 2025: Money Talk
October 2025: Money Talk
Hello dear folks,
This is Marc writing, with a picture of finances for Hanna and Careforce. We want to let you know where things stand, clarify the need, and invite both your support and suggestions.
The wonderful thing is that Hanna has lived longer than anyone expected (especially her!). We had the “Living End (of life) Celebration” over a year ago. It has been more than two and a half years since Hanna’s diagnosis, three years since first symptoms, and we are grateful for every day.
As time goes on, Hanna’s need for care becomes more constant and detailed. We rely on our wonderful paid caregivers, who provide constancy and consistency we can’t provide with Careforce volunteers alone. That’s expensive.
What's needed?
I’ll offer two views of what’s up. The first is a snapshot of the present.
Throughout the past two years, we’ve tried to maintain a three-month cushion in the balance we have on hand. That lets us operate without the added stress of low funds, while also keeping an eye on the future. As you can see, that cushion is now less than our goal, and moving toward nervous-making. The main reason for this is our increased reliance on paid care.
We would love to raise $17,000 in the next month, so we can continue to pay our excellent caregivers. (This is our “survival” figure. The “thriving” figure would add funding to better support our volunteers, expenses after Hanna’s death, and future publication of Hanna’s work.)
How to help
If you are able to give, the easiest is to go through GiveButter. One-time contributions are great. Monthly donations are great too—a way for you to manage things and for us to have foresight.
Pass it on?
Might someone else in your world be interested in Hanna’s story and able to support her care, life and work? Do pass on this link, or a link to the GiveButter campaign: givebutter.com/hanna-care.
Where does it come from? Where does it go?
The second picture is a summary of the full history of the “Hanna Fund.”
The left side shows the inflow from our different sources, while the right side shows where the money has gone. This is imprecise, but it is true in its categories and proportions.
Of the sources we have available for income, talking to you is our most flexible. The savings are gone, social security is fixed, grants are limited and take a lot of effort, and family and friends have done / are doing all they can.
What's not included: the invisible balance sheet
Money alone does not give a realistic picture of the resources that are required for Hanna’s care. And Hanna’s condition and quality of life is not the only fruit born from this flow. What else is on the balance sheet of care and community?
Thank you
Thank you for the swirling flow of generosity and love we’ve experienced for two and a half years—financial, emotional, laborial, jokeial. tearial, laughial, poemial—in all forms. It’s not one-way, from community to Hanna and Careforce. It’s a system of currents among us, in which we all participate. From the exhalations of the trees with whom we exchange our own exhalations, to a meal provided, a coin contributed, a compliment given, a tear witnessed, a need confessed. Thank you. It’s a privilege.
South Africans: See Hanna's film at Woordfees through October 19
In range of Stellenbosch? See Hanna's video at Woordfees!
Big screen: Saturday at 1:00pm | Small screen: looping all day through Oct 19
A video of Hanna's new writing, "Choosing to See" is part of "Die Veldhospitaal" at Woordfees, through October 19
A short note on short notice!
“Choosing to See,” the video that Hanna has been writing all summer, is showing at the Woordfees festival Saturday the 18th at 1:00pm. This is part of the “Veldhospitaal” exhibition at Libertas Farm, near Stellenbosch.
If you can’t make it during that time, the video will be playing on a loop on a smaller screen all day through October 19.
Tickets to Veldhospitaal are R500 per day. You can buy them at the link above.
Can’t make it? Far from Stellenbosch? We’ll soon be announcing a Zoom watch-along premiere.
Some stills—a taste of the rich variety of visuals in the film.
