Seán's first memories of being aware of mortality include watching All Dogs Go to Heaven, singing "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly", seeing roadkill, and smelling the scent of a dead pet frog. However, he didn't start reflecting especially deeply about death until his teenage years, particularly as he began to read more books involving death and started to experience severe depression.
Meanwhile: A dear aunt died. Impactful musicians followed. He saw someone fatally struck by a car. Another beloved, terminally-ill aunt asked him to read a poem at her imminent celebration of life, and he was the last family member to speak to her before she died.
He took care of his dog in her final days, and co-decided when she would receive euthanasia. He memorialized an online friend who died and commissioned a song in her honour. And then five more family members died over the course of five years. He co-designed a gravestone, wrote obituaries, delivered more eulogies, and became the family archivist.
During this time, he also experienced a long period of intense illness where he became highly death-phobic. Eventually, he came to a deep sense of acceptance and started a self-memorialization practice. He now writes an obituary for himself every year for his birthday.
He moved to Canada in his late grandfather's honour, and started working with soil and caring for wild animals in their dying days. He has since buried and mourned many species, as well as the land itself.
In 2018, he took Nicole Kilburn's Anthropology of Death course, which explored death traditions & beliefs around the world and prompted students to examine their own relationship with mortality. He also begin channeling his personal explorations of mortality into art. During this time, he was disappointed by the lack of good death literacy resource hubs, and came up with the idea of a 'Library of Death'.
He now works to help make death-conscious resources and spaces more accessible to as many people as possible. He and his partner Kate are also on a payment plan to share a double-depth natural burial at Salt Spring Natural Cemetery.