Grief has woven its way through my life in many shades and forms. As a Social Worker of twenty years, I have companioned children and families experiencing immense suffering through the diagnosis of their child’s life limiting condition, through their child’s end of life, and in life beyond their child’s death, when the constellation of a family becomes irreparably changed. 

 

As a fellow human being, I have experienced my own losses nurturing my father through his end of life, and have observed the way grief has cast its spell on my own family’s story. In my world, the personal and professional are intertwined, inseparable.

 

Living a life of service, in its many forms, has meant bearing all of myself, as I in turn bear witness to the suffering of children, families, and colleagues I walk alongside. I have scaled great heights as I have worked in collaboration with families and colleagues to shake up a health care system focused on cure, and challenged by death.  I have delved into the abyss of sorrow through the weightiness of this life of service. Yet within this undulating path, I have experienced profound joy and beauty in the simplest of ways.

 

I am now committed to a path that means the wisdom gained through these life experiences can be shared with others, to tend to suffering and grief within our community, with love, tenderness and compassion.