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Doorkeeper Ministries
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I am blessed to be a part of this beautiful work as an End-of-Life Doula. As a doorkeeper, I look forward to walking with many more dear souls through the Door of Eternity with all my heart and with great passion! I hope you will consider me when you and your family need a doula companion on this journey. I will consider it a very great honor and privilege to be a faithful and nurturing advocate for you or your loved one.
I have cared for and been at the bedside of many dozens of people in their last days. This all began in 2002 when I was called to care for an elderly woman in her home in Louisiana. She was dying of Alzheimer’s Disease and although I did not realize it then, God used that experience to begin my training as an End-of-Life Doula. |
Kelly with her mother in her last year
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I subsequently cared for my mother with Alzheimer’s for ten years, and then cared for my husband for 11 years before he died of Frontotemporal Dementia in 2024. In my final year of caring for him, I was blessed to be named Caregiver of the Year for Weld County in Colorado by Pathways Hospice and also recognized with awards from Dementia Together.
In the year 2011, I began teaching Bible Studies at Greeley Place, an independent living center in nearby Greeley, Colorado. That quickly turned into much more than an hour bible study as I began sitting at the bedside with people who were ill, sitting with many in the hospital and in hospice as they went through the dying process, and working with innumerable families to help them make end-of-life plans for their loved ones. I cannot even count how many memorial services I officiated over these past years, and how many families I walked with through their painful times of losing parents and friends. Now, in retrospect, I realize that for a long time a loving God has been gifting me in compassion, nurturing, counseling, and blessing those going through that challenging end-time of life.
Every time I had the great honor and privilege of attending someone at their time of death, I sensed I was doing a most holy work, in a time and place that most people do not want to go. For me, it was an opportunity to bring the frightened and the anxious to a place of gentle peace and calm. It was a blessed opportunity to hold someone’s hand and let them know that their life has mattered. I love to be fully present to people, not in judgment, but in love, and to contribute music therapy by singing and playing comforting music at the bedside.
Testimonial by David B. Means, Gloster, Louisiana:
My mother's health sharply declined in early 2002 and she was placed in hospice. After several hospitalizations, she was able to come home with twenty-four-hour care. Our friend Kelly was aware of this and stunned me with an offer to come and live with my mother and care for her during her last days. Kelly's steadfast care, love and attention was “all in” and totally sacrificial. The authenticity of her walk with Christ, together with her skills and deep compassion make her an outstanding End of Life Doula.
My mother's health sharply declined in early 2002 and she was placed in hospice. After several hospitalizations, she was able to come home with twenty-four-hour care. Our friend Kelly was aware of this and stunned me with an offer to come and live with my mother and care for her during her last days. Kelly's steadfast care, love and attention was “all in” and totally sacrificial. The authenticity of her walk with Christ, together with her skills and deep compassion make her an outstanding End of Life Doula.