When Caroline’s father passed away, she was left with two toddlers to care for and a funeral to plan, with no idea about her father’s wishes. A visit to a funeral home left her feeling as though her needs weren’t being met. She ended up harnessing her skills as a production coordinator for photo shoots to plan a personal, intimate ceremony where everyone came together and shared stories. She found the experience incredibly healing but her encounter with the funeral industry left her feeling that her needs weren’t being met and that the experience didn’t cater to the consumer. 

What she wanted was a roadmap and someone who would guide her through the process, taking the entire grief experience into account. She knew there was a business opportunity for providing the kinds of services she wished had been there for her. From this the Ripple philosophy was born. In order to understand the funeral industry, she decided she needed to learn it from the inside out. She went back to school at the American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Services, spent a year working at a very busy funeral home on the upper west side of NYC and became a licensed Funeral Director. From there, Caroline ventured out on her own, founding Down to Earth Funerals. With the start of the Covid pandemic, Caroline was one of the hundreds of Funeral Directors across the country to step up in an unprecedented circumstance to help families honor their loved ones. 

This experience confirmed that she could foster real change in the funeral industry by building a business model that took inspiration from the wellness market by taking a holistic approach to the customer and grief. The Ripple philosophy was born.