She has worked with people nearing the end of their lives for years and she knows what the books teach. Putting it into practice was something she had to experience when her mother died in June of 2015 of heart/lung illness. "We had several years to face it," she says. "We had conve r s a t i o n s a b o u t what she wanted her last years to look like. In 2009, I wrote a song for her" and it proved appropriate when the time came. "I was so glad that my family opened ourselves to the gift THEROANOKER.COM MAY/JUNE 2016 | 77http://www.ourladyofthevalley.com http://www.ourladyofthevalley.com http://www.THEROANOKER.COM