Dawn Delaloye

I think, boy, if I was to give advice to my younger self, give yourself some grace, you know? It doesn't all have to be perfect. You'll figure out your way, you'll figure out your path, it will all work out the way it's supposed to, and I think give yourself some grace. And treat yourself like you would a friend. You know, we're so critical of ourselves, and I think sometimes if you look and you're like, okay, I need to treat myself like I would treat a friend or support a friend. The other thing I tell my kids, too, is if no one was going to find out what your career was, if no one ever knew what your career was, would you still want to be doing what you're doing? That's important. And obviously, we all have to make a living, but at the end of the day, are you doing something that fills you up, that brings you up? Everybody says, find your passion, but I think that there is some truth in that. Like, what matters to you? Is it something that you can still get excited about? And if not, maybe you need to take another look. We're always learning and growing.

I would say having those conversations about grief, and I think talking about death and dying, our society is so illiterate when it comes to grief and death and dying, we just kind of shut down around it. So I would like to see more open conversations. I would like to see people knowing how to support one another, not shying away from death and the conversations around it, that would be amazing to me. And if we can continue, like they say, using AI for good, and celebrating one's life, and having, you know, using this digital platform to be able to create conversations that you can still have with your loved one. I think what happens is when people die, we lose a lot of their library goes with them, right? All of the memories, some of the stories, like, we might have pictures, and sometimes it's like, well, who the heck is in this picture? Having the story behind the picture, and then I think for our kids, too, and the upcoming generations, they're not gonna go pull a photo album out, they're going to want it to all be digitized, so I think stepping into that and using it and being able to preserve those memories and those stories and the legacy of one is something I would love to see happen.

I think having that integrity to witness someone's grief and what they're going through without judgment, just being there to support them. I think that integrity that I try to bring each day, and that empathy. Those listening skills, not trying to fix, but just listening. Being able to walk alongside people in their most vulnerable moments, it truly is a privilege for me. We all have limited time on this earth, but knowing that they might only have a few months, and that they spend an hour of their week speaking with me, it humbles me greatly.