sunset: Manage end of life wishes
Nobody prepares you for this moment. Families find it out one late task at a time, in the worst days and weeks of their lives. It does not have to go this way.
Services Provided
UpLegacy: Trained, certified non-medical End-of-Life Doula who provides emotional, spiritual, and physical support to people who are dying and to their families:
- Life Transition, Education, Coaching and Companioning: The whole journey, explained before it arrives.
- Respite Care: The weeks, days and hours nobody else can cover.
- Plan and Conduct Vigils: The final weeks and days decided in advance.
- Mourn and Post-Loss Support: The days, months and year after everyone else has gone home.
- Post-Death Home Organization: The house and the papers, at the family’s pace.Â
What sunset will and will not do
Most families do everything right and still end up guessing. They have a will. Maybe an advance directive in a drawer somewhere. And then at two in the morning in an emergency room, someone asks a question those documents do not answer, and a son or a daughter has to decide on behalf of a person who can no longer tell them.
A will says who gets what. It does not say who gets called first. It does not say whether he wanted to be at home. It does not say she hated the sound of a television in the room, or that the dog matters more than the china, or which of his brothers should not be in the hallway.
Those are the wishes that go unwritten. They are also the ones families argue about afterwards, for years, because nobody knew.
Common Questions About Our Services
The questions families ask first.
Who is this for?
- Adult children: most people who reach out are in their fifties, watching a parent decline, and are the one in the family everybody else looks at.
- Families planning ahead while it is calm and nothing is urgent. This work is easier by an order of magnitude before a diagnosis than after one.
- Anyone who has been handed a prognosis and has not been able to say the word out loud yet.
Is it too early to be doing this?
Almost nobody has ever told us they started too early. A great many have said they started too late.
Is it too late?
If they can still be spoken to, it is not too late. And if they cannot, there is still work worth doing for the people left behind.
Do we need this if we already have a will and a directive?
Those documents are necessary and they are not sufficient. They cover the legal and the medical.
They do not cover the human decisions that get made in a hallway.
Does this replace hospice?
No, and it never should. Hospice is medical care. If you are eligible for hospice and not using it, that is a decision that you can take and we can review next steps.
What does it cost?
Every UpLegacy price is published in the shop, so you can see it before we talk.
The first conversation is free and there is no obligation attached to it.