I was visiting with friends recently and while we were sitting around the table, we got to discussing the legacy we want to leave behind for those we love. I shared that my goal is to live a life that leaves behind a memory for my granddaughters and that in their mind, I was a good person, that I was kind and honest and that I was someone they would always be proud of. This got everyone talking about the legacy they would want to leave behind.

One of my friends shared that she had suggested to her husband to write his life story. At the time she was just trying to find something for him to do, a distraction for him to help keep him occupied as he was having a difficult time with being seventy-five, a “senior citizen,” and retired. As he started to write it, he realized that what he wanted most, was to share the lessons he had learned over all the years of his life. This would be the legacy that he wanted to leave behind.

Several weeks and twenty-seven pages later, he wrote his life story, and I was honored to read every page, realizing that for as long as we had been friends, I knew very little about him. That night at the table, he shared what it felt like to go back over his life, revisiting his childhood, his teenage years, and the poignant moments of his life leading to where he is now. I couldn’t wait to read it.

I remember holding all the pages in my hands, reading one after another, learning about his family, his upbringing, his challenges, his accomplishments… his life story. I realized that I knew nothing about him except that he was married to my friend, a little about his career, and that he is a very kind man who treated his wife, and her friends, well. I was so happy to be able to read his life story while he was still alive because it offered me a chance to sit down with him and ask for more.

I realized while reading this, that there is so much we do not know about the people we call family or friend. I also realized, how very little my family and friends know about me. In reading his life story, I was reminded of my own and I thought to myself that if I don’t write mine, no one would ever know. There are many things I have shared very publicly, however there is much that I have kept under lock and key and I believe it is a very important part of who I am, and how I came to be.

I encourage you to sit down now and write your life story, starting with where you were born, the earliest memories of your childhood, the moments that gave you the biggest lessons, and the joys you experience currently. Share this with the people you love and ask that they share it too so that your life story, the legacy you leave behind, continues to be shared over the years.

I’ve started writing my life story, making sure to include the pivotal moments throughout my life that helped light the path to where I am now. I have had fun remembering, but more than that, I am seeing myself through my granddaughters’ eyes and I am proud of where I am now. Despite the obstacles and roadblocks that continually tried to bring me down, I have turned out okay and if I leave only one message behind it will be to never give up, and always believe in yourself and what you are capable of doing. What message would your life story send to the people you love?

Have you been called to become a sacred passage end-of-life doula?

Gabrielle was introduced to end of life care when she was asked to sit at the bedside of a friend who was dying. The time she spent with him ignited a calling she realizes now, had been inside her since she was very young. It was caring for him that inspired her to go back to school to become a hospice nurse. In her first book, "Soft Landing" she talks about the struggles she had going back to school later in life. In her second book, "The Hospice Heart", she takes you back to her childhood, which clearly indicates she was meant to do this work since she was seven years old. Both books offer an insight into her compassionate and gentle heart and the lovely way she provides comfort and care to someone who is dying, as well as for those who have to say goodbye.

Her intention is to combine her hospice experience with being an end of life doula, continuing to provide beautiful care at the end of life. Gabrielle brings her whole heart and shares it generously.

Gabrielle's latest book At The Bedside has just been released, you can get it now: Purchase "At the Bedside"