When Tawnya Healy, 56, recalls the moment she realized her calling was to sit beside the dying and help carry out their end-of-life wishes, her soft voice swells with intention.

It was 2017, and the mother of a close friend was nearing the end of her life. Rather than distancing herself during a time filled with unknowns, grief and fear, Healy found herself pulling closer. She sat by the older woman’s bed nearly every day as she moved through the end-of-life stage into active dying, a period that can last anywhere from hours to days and is often marked by unresponsiveness, changes in breathing and shifts in body temperature.

“I loved her,” Healy said. “After she died, I got a pretty clear message from spirit that said you should sit with people when they're dying.”

It wasn’t the first d

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