How I Got Started:

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Life and death are a constant continuum, flowing with every experience, using every breath as we inhale and exhale the beauty of living.

We will never know what time we will expire, where we'll be and who will be witnessing our body's last breath. I think we all want to know at the end of this experience that we were loved, that we shared the love, that at the end of this life we will  remember that we are love. 

I have wonderful memories from the age of 2 to 10 years old holding my grandfather's hand as we walked to his favorite diner to meet up with his friends, smoking his pipe with tobacco that smelled like vanilla.  Everything Poppy told me I believed. He would talk with me about his perspective on life, living, learning and celebrating; he also talked with me about dying and death. He would be the only person in my life who would answer my questions about dying and death. He promised me that he would say goodbye to me before he left the earth, so at the age of 10, when October 31st rolled around and my younger brother and I were heading out the door to go trick or treating, the phone rang eerily, only to find out from my mom that Poppy "passed away". Because he promised to say goodbye I didn't believe that passing away meant that he actually died so when it finally registered in my head my heart dropped thousands of miles into the earth. Running up to my room, hysterically crying and asking no one yet anyone why he would tell me his stories and his beliefs when none of them were true -- when suddenly he appeared from shoulder up and he said, "I've come to say goodbye. You have to let me go or I will get caught up in the astral plain and I've got too much work to do."  Thankful, with a heart full of love I said, "Thank you for coming to say goodbye. I would never want to hold you back from doing your work. I love you and goodbye." And his last words to me were, "I love you and I will always be with you."

​My quote since the murder of my younger brother, David on September 11th, 2001 is This is the only moment we have.  Make it the most precious moment we've got. People often think of dying and death as an unapproachable conversation. Part of my calling is to change that. Having your affairs in order long before you leave this planet is so critical. Some people do a lot of talking about completing their advance care planning but never act on it.  Again, part of my calling is to change that too.

During my training as a death midwife I felt such joy and a deep knowing that this is my final call. This service is a blessing and I feel so very connected to those individuals who are on their way to their next journey, whatever that may be.