Meet Anne

In 2015 I retired from over 25 years as a registered nurse. Most of my career was spent in mental health nursing. The last 13 years were spent working with homeless, marginalized populations. My interest in death was kindled by the frequency of client death, with little to no information regarding end of life wishes, or how to contact their families

My personal experience with death. 

My personal experience with death started when we visited my mom in Alberta at Thanksgiving. She talked to me about dying and expressed a very strong desire to listen to beautiful music as she died. That Christmas my mom had an accident and broke her neck. As I could not get there I communicated her wishes to my brothers. They could not organize a way to play music to her so sang Silent Night over and over until she died. This would have been beautiful music to my mothers ear.

When my father was in hospital 15 years later, one night he said “I think I’m going to die”. I sat quietly as he told me his wishes for cremation, burial of cremains, service etc. He had never spoken of this before nor had he written things down. He died ten days later and we were able to carry out his wishes.

A few years ago as my intellectually disabled brother was dying, I sat vigil one night. At 5 AM I went to the cafeteria to grab a quick breakfast, but while there I had a sudden feeling I needed to return to his room. I ran through the hospital corridors to arrive in time for his final breath.

In every experience I’ve had with dying both personally and professionally, I have felt honored to be present for this life event.

As your Doula I will support you and your loved ones at all stages, before, during and after dying.

Everyone has different thoughts, feelings and beliefs about dying. Some families do fine on their own, others can feel stressed or panicked. I can join your journey and ease that stress.