Join us October 13th via ZOOM at 8:30 AM to hear from our resident End Of Life Doula, Holly Menard, who will be our special ten minute key note speaker. The title of her message is “Ways an End of Life Doula Supports the Caregiver.”

Four years after graduating from nursing school, Holly moved from New England to Raleigh. Her first job was a chemo nurse on a cancer research unit at Duke where she witnessed too many deaths where patients received every treatment medically possible and they died anyway, in the hospital, sometimes without their family present.  It was heartbreaking for the patients, their families and the  the healthcare team. At the same time it was rewarding because we became like family.

Then Holly got married, they started a family, and a home-based  business.  Before she knew it several years had passed and she became aware of a longing to provide non-medical holistic services As a result she became a licensed massage therapist and, when it was medically allowed, she began specializing in Oncology massage.  In the meantime she experienced deaths involving her family, friends and clients.  Holly’s son died at 33 years old unexpectedly after being hit by a car.  That event changed the trajectory of her life.

Holly became increasingly aware that many people were not dying well due in part to medicalization of care, overwhelm and complicated family relationships. More recently Holly learned about End of Life Doulas and in March of 2020 she became professionally trained as a certified End of Life Doula and began serving clients, their families. Raising awareness of who we are and our role in end of life care has led her to educating communities and healthcare professionals through conversations, presentations and interviews.  Holly now believes, and has been privileged to witness people dying well and that even elegant deaths are possible.

 
Read more about Holly Menard.