As a spiritual companion, I have been honored to walk with people who are straight, gay, liberal, conservative, part of a religious group and not, chaplains and academics, clergy and lay people, healthy people and people who were ill or dying. Together we have grown a little more with each encounter and I value the bravery of people sharing their journeys.
My life has been a weaving together of two major strands—health care (nursing and public health) and spiritual exploration (ordination as a priest in the Episcopal Church). Mind-body-spirit integration is central to my understanding of human life.
My nursing education was at Cornell University School of Nursing and at Columbia University Teachers College, both in New York City. After years of teaching and health care administration, I helped develop the role of the Parish Nurse/Faith Community Nurse and the health component of CREDO. My education as a spiritual companion is through the Haden Institute in Niagara Falls, Canada. Life itself as taught me through childrearing, divorce, caregiving and widowhood. For thirteen years, I walked with my late husband through his younger-onset dementia (Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy Body disease).
Fun for me includes reading, gardening, singing with Threshold Choir, walking in wild places, hearing chamber music and whenever possible, traveling in this wide and wonderful world.
I was born in Brooklyn New York, lived many years in Illinois and Indiana, and now call Claremont California my home.