Carla Hope Andersen graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Nursing in 1982. She has practiced in multiple hospitals, as well as in schools, nursing facilities and private homes. Caring for those unable to care for themselves has brought great meaning and purpose to Carla’s life journey.

Assisting families who care for some of our most vulnerable, those nearing the final moments of life, is a passion for Carla. Having spent years caring for sick, elderly patients during and after nurses training, she saw many die without loved ones near. There is a better way.

One of the most difficult challenges we all must face is acceptance of our mortality, and understanding when prolonging life is no longer supportive of our dignity, or our best interests. The physical body does wear out, but just because we CAN sustain it with machinery and forced feedings, doesn’t mean an artificially supported body is truly Living.

Early conversations about death and dying, are as important as those concerning how to  live our Best Life.  Choosing  a life-enhancing medical intervention to sustain a life, is very different from choosing to intervene with methods that may prevent natural death. As painful as the loss of life can be, artificially prolonging a life in a sick or pain-ridden body, creates avoidable suffering. No one escapes the death of the body, but we can embrace it as a rebirth into Spirit, a Home-coming.

Fear of death and loss of relationships, makes it hard to say goodbye, but when we understand death of the physical body as yet another rite of passage, we can celebrate our loved one’s liberation from the worn out shell that housed the loving soul who so enriched the lives it touched.