The Shroud: A Daughter’s Act of Love

What if preparing for death could also be an act of love?

In this deeply moving episode of Exit Strategy, Stephanie Garry speaks with filmmaker Ilana Trachtman and fiber artist Rachel Kanter, whose story is at the heart of the documentary Shroud.

Rachel is making her mother’s burial shroud.

For Rachel, a fiber artist accustomed to working with her hands, the process of creating the shroud becomes something far more profound than an artistic project. It is an intimate way of preparing for her mother’s death—and of thinking about their relationship, Jewish ritual, memory, mortality and what it means to care for someone all the way to the end.

The film invites us into a space that most of us would rather avoid: the time before a death, when the person we love is still here, but we know that someday they will not be.

What does it mean to make something for someone that they will use only after they are gone?

How do we talk with our parents about death without making the conversation feel like we are already saying goodbye?

And can the physical act of making—a piece of cloth, a garment, a shroud—help us process something that words often cannot?

Ilana and Rachel share the story behind Shroud and the deeply personal journey of creating a final garment for Rachel’s mother. Their conversation opens up a much larger discussion about Jewish burial traditions, the intimacy of caring for the dead, the role of ritual, and the ways we can begin preparing for death while still fully living.

This is ultimately a story about love, creativity and connection—and about what it means to prepare to let someone go.

•The inspiration behind Shroud

•Rachel’s decision to make her mother’s burial shroud

•The relationship between art, ritual and grief

•Why making something with our own hands can be so powerful

•The Jewish tradition of shrouding and what it represents

•What happens when we begin talking about death before someone dies

•The complicated emotions of preparing for the inevitable

•How rituals can help families navigate loss

•And what this story teaches us about love, caregiving and saying goodbye

Shroud asks us to consider a simple but profound question: Could preparing for death actually help us live—and love—more fully while we still have the time?