What does the word “suffering” mean to you? How would you use it in a sentence? How have you personally experienced it? I think the first...

I am often asked why someone is taking so long to die, especially when they have gone days without food or water, they are no longer...

Grief can be rainbows on a really stormy day It can be gale force winds with skies filled with grey It can be sunshine and clouds It can...

I had a dream that I walked out into my living room, and on the coffee table was a telephone. It wasn’t mine, and it wasn’t there the...

My heart is reminded what day this is I don’t need a calendar for that It remembers it like it was yesterday It’s the day that I first...

I received a call from the daughter of a patient I had only seen one time almost a year ago. After my visit with her mother, I had called her to let her know how things went. She hadn't seen her mother in many months; they lived seven hours apart from one another, and they didn't really "get along," but she did want to know how she was. At the time of the call, her mother was doing well and from my perspective had a few months left to live.   We ended up having a very long co

I was present for a man who chose Medical Aid in Dying to end his suffering caused by his terminal diagnosis. He is being referred to by...

I was once called “Cemetery Girl”. Seriously, it’s true. Even as a really young kid, I was fascinated and drawn to cemeteries. Back then,...

I often talk about having a conversation with the people you love about what is most important to them at the end of their life, way...

I had a patient a few years ago, who I visited twice a week until she died. On her coffee table was this box, it was never opened. It...

I truly do believe that people are coming from a thoughtful place when they say things to someone who is grieving, but unfortunately,...

When I walked in the room, I could see she was struggling… for life, for breath, and for peace, and when she said to me, “can you help...

“Gabby, I think mom is dying.” This was a message I received from the daughter of a woman I had the pleasure of visiting with for over a...

I picked up the phone to call you today Forgetting (again) you are gone So many things I’ve wanted to say Wishing you could pick up the...

When I started this particular blog, I had just been present for seven people in ten days who had exercised their legal right to take the...

I was on a flight home sitting next to two kids, ages six and nine, both girls. They were playing games with their laptops, and watching...

This is a story about one of my doula clients who invited me to be there every step of the way of his end-of-life journey. He shared what...

I was sitting with a woman who was days before her death, fully conscious and aware of everything she was feeling and experiencing. She...

“Gabby, why am I grieving the loss of my mom more than my sisters are? Why is mine so much deeper and more painful? I feel like it’s...

I was with a woman who was in her eighties and had Dementia although there were moments of such clarity that I sometimes forget. With...