My Own Experiences

Hello. My name is Cassidy McCleary

Originally coming from a software background, my first real experience with death was when my grandfather suddenly went into a coma and was put on hospice. I took a week off of college to spend 3 days in vigil in my grandparent's home, surrounded by my close family. We stayed until the moment of death, which occurred right after my grandmother gave him permission to leave. We were fortunate to have someone present who was very knowledgeable about the death process and was able to walk us through everything. Words cannot describe how invaluable this was for me.

Later in life, I learned of the death doula profession. For a while, it was just a dream to be able to help people in this way. Things changed when I applied to be a hospice volunteer. I found it to be so much more rewarding than my day job. As a result, I made the decision to leave my cubical QA position to enter the caregiver sphere.