“What people need most on this journey is not the next new technology but rather a guide to help navigate this forest.”
- Angelo Volandes, M.D.
Cheryl D. Danley
Cheryl specializes in standing alongside clients, family members and care partners through three end of life phases: (a) Planning and Life Review, (b) Conducting Vigil and/or (c) Grief and Celebration of Life. She draws on both professional training and personal experience with her own family and friends. Cheryl gained insight on fears, concerns and joys of this life stage by accompanying her mother Laytha through the complete cycle, with support from home hospice and Laytha’s inner circle of fiercely independent women. When the end came, Laytha’s wishes were known and honored.
Cheryl has deep appreciation for legacy and is grateful to the Floral City Florida Heritage Council for capturing her mother’s story on video. Her final wishes were carried out at a Thanksgiving Celebration of Life by scattering her ashes over the Florida farmland where she was born.
Cheryl’s practice is also informed by living in a transnational intercultural blended family, and by her prior career in international development. Through overseeing comprehensive HIV/AIDS programs with Africare in African communities, she came to appreciate the role of palliative care, as well as, grief and celebration in processing death. Cheryl is uniquely positioned to serve expatriates abroad in navigating services for loved ones at home -- a virtual Doula to the Diaspora. At home in Florida, Cheryl works with Papa Pals, a service that assists seniors with companionship and household chores; volunteers with Deliver the Dream, an organization that provides therapeutic programs to families facing a serious illness, crisis, or disability; and, participates with the multi-university PACT Study -- Preventing Alzheimer’s with Cognitive Training. In 2022, Cheryl co-hosted TenderCare Conversations, a virtual group for care partners with Willow Baum.
