About

Doreen was 7 years old when she experienced her first death, and it left an imprint. It was her 80-year-old Mémé. While there was, of course, sadness, she also experienced an overwhelming feeling of community as family and loved ones came together to honour Mémé’s passing.

It was this feeling of community and honouring that stayed with Doreen into adulthood and informed what would become her life-long interest and service: supporting individuals and their loved ones through the dying process. During her 35-year career, Doreen has served as a nurse, held a variety of key positions with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and most recently as Education Coordinator with The Hospice of Windsor and Essex County. She has supported many people as they have faced their own death or the passing of a loved one.

But her compassion, care, and gentle heart goes well beyond roles and titles – it is a part of her very make-up. Whether it was working alongside Mother Teresa and the Sister’s of Charity in Calcutta and Delhi to care for the dying; fundraising supplies for orphanages in Romania; serving the homeless, socially and economically disadvantaged in Brazil; taking money and medical supplies to Afghanistan; co-founding the Sophia Fund to provide funds for women and girls in developing countries; or providing clinical services to rural villages in Guatemala, there was one common thread throughout: Doreen’s big heart and desire to serve.

It is this big heart and desire to serve that Doreen brings to her work as Founder, Death Doula, and Celebrant at One Thread.