When confronted with grief, people often say “it gets better with time.” Although this statement comes from a place of kindness and...

A common piece of advice I give is: Listen without trying to fix, judge, or share how you would handle the situation... listen to affirm...

One of the things I stress most to the people at the bedside of someone who is dying, is to be mindful of how aware their person is, even...

I was walking down the aisle of a grocery store when I heard a little girl say to her mother, “you know mom, if I don’t eat for three...

We never think about the last words we might have said to someone until they become the last words we said to them The last words,...

When I was about 8 years old, a young man on his motorcycle, came around the corner near my house. I was in my bedroom and I can remember very clearly hearing the motorcycle roaring closely and then I heard the crash, and then I heard silence. He had come around the corner and hit the tree so hard he went one way and the bike went another. I ran out of my house and right up to him, I wasn’t afraid and while it didn’t even occur to me then, I must have had some instinct becaus

The boat rests quietly on the tranquil water Drifting ever so gently with each soft wave And though it remains serene... for now It...

My promise to my patients, to the people who love them, to my family, to my friends, and to all of you... I will be there for you. xo...

This is a story about a woman who came to our hospice house and touched all of us. This was many years ago but she will always have a place in my heart. This was a woman who touched every single person she met. She was gentle, she was kind, and she was lovelier than any human you will ever meet. And she was dying. She was with us for several weeks. Her room was decorated in fairy lights that her husband hung for her. There were cards from friends hanging on strings that drap

I had a dream that I was taking a walk and I came upon a huge open field of grass and little purple flowers, and there in the middle were two rocks, which seemed to invite me to sit. And I did. After a few minutes of sitting in this huge open space, I looked up at the sky and out of nowhere, there were suddenly hundreds of kites; so many kites of different shapes and sizes and so many colors. I was blown away by how many there were, and no one was flying them and none of them

When I first started working as a hospice nurse, I witnessed the different ways in which individuals go through and express grief. I learned about anticipatory grief, which typically begins at the moment of diagnosis and lingers until the very end. Over the years, I have seen numerous people grieve, and I used to believe that grief was solely related to death, but I now understand that grief encompasses all forms of loss. You can grieve the loss of a friendship, a relationshi

When you work in end-of-life care you learn something new each day. We learn from our patients and the people who love them, and we learn...

When my sister died a part of me died with her. I have attached a blog I wrote for and about her. She was my everything when I was...

I think too much, sometimes I overthink too much. I try really hard... sometimes too hard. I cry... easily... sometimes for no reason at...

A quote that will always stay in my head is one that I received from a woman who was 105 years young… “youth is wasted on the young.” She said this during a conversation we had that started with me asking her what lessons she has taken from her life. I thought these were wise words from a woman who lived over 100 years, but as it turns out, this is a common phrase which I believe was said by Oscar Wilde, and basically means that young people often fail to fully appreciate the

I recently put a question out there asking for a one-word answer to what grief means to you. My intention for this was to remind all of...

grief is sharp and it cuts deep and can feel as though you have been wrapped tightly with barbed wire your heart gets snagged by the...

Something weird happened to me the other day… it affected me so much that I had to take a few days to process it and figure out the...

You would think that working in hospice and end-of-life care and being present for so many people who were about to start their grief...

A few months ago, I received a phone call from a number I did not recognize. I usually assume those are SPAM calls and ignore them, but I...