My Story
Working in a 911 center for almost 20 years taught me a lot of things. It brought me face-to-face with the best and the worst in my fellow humans. I learned how to talk to people in extreme and heartbreaking crises, keeping my cool, and compartmentalizing everything, so that I could get them the help they needed. Death and I were on the same phone call many times throughout my career, and because of this, I thought I was comfortable with the concept of my own mortality.
Suddenly, I was afraid of getting sick and causing the death of my friends and family, and this made dying more real to me than all the funerals I’d ever attended put together. I realized that until then, I was living as though I would be the one person in history to escape our inevitable end. Having to accept that would not be the case was deeply unnerving.
But that's the problem - death was just a concept for me. Until the COVID pandemic of 2019 brought forward death anxiety in me I had no idea existed.
As with all things that terrify me, I set out to learn as much as I possibly could about dying, and this led me to complete my End-of-Life Doula training in the fall of 2020.
Through my investigations and ongoing self-education about death and dying over the last two years, I've developed a much different relationship with mortality. My faith is expanded, and my hope for dying well, with dignity and knowing my voice has been heard is growing. And now, I am honoured to be able to offer that same hope to others.
