When both of my parents were on hospice, I experienced firsthand the compassion, dignity, and comfort that hospice provides during life's most difficult moments. Those experiences forever changed me and deepened my commitment to ensuring that every person has the opportunity to experience a peaceful and dignified end of life.
As an estate planning attorney, I spend my career helping families prepare for the future. But I have also learned that planning isn't just about protecting assets-it's about protecting the people we love and ensuring they are cared for with dignity when they need it most.
Since 2017, I have had the privilege of serving on the Southern California Hospice Foundation's Hospice Advisory Council, where I was honored to help shape the vision and development of the Heavenly Home. Watching this dream become a reality has been one of the most meaningful experiences of my life. Today, the Heavenly Home provides compassionate end-of-life care to hospice patients who have nowhere else to go, ensuring they are surrounded by comfort, dignity, and love during their final days.
Today, I am asking you to join me in supporting Preserving Dignity Day. Your gift will help grow the Living Legacy Endowment, creating a permanent source of funding to ensure the Heavenly Home and the Southern California Hospice Foundation's compassionate programs will continue serving families for generations to come.
Thanks to a generous matching gift, every donation made today will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $50,000, doubling the impact of your generosity.
No one should face the end of life alone or without compassionate care. Thank you for joining me in preserving the dignity of the dying and helping provide comfort, hope, and peace to those who need it most.
At the Southern California Hospice Foundation, we believe that every person deserves dignity, comfort, and compassion at the end of life — regardless of their financial circumstances.
For more than two decades, our Foundation has walked alongside patients and families facing life’s most difficult journey, filling the gaps that traditional hospice care often cannot cover. While hospice provides invaluable medical support, it does not pay for room and board or 24-hour caregiving — leaving many families without safe options when a loved one can no longer remain at home.
That reality inspired the creation of The Heavenly Home — Orange County’s first nonprofit residential end-of-life care home. Opened in Mission Viejo in 2023, the six-bed home provides around-the-clock caregiving in a peaceful, home-like environment where residents can spend their final days surrounded by compassion, family, and meaningful moments.
Since opening our doors, the Heavenly Home has become a sanctuary for individuals who otherwise may have nowhere to go. Families have gathered for final celebrations, reconciliations, bedside prayers, birthday parties, music, laughter, and quiet moments of peace. Here, loved ones are able to simply be daughters, sons, spouses, and friends again — instead of exhausted caregivers.
But sustaining this level of compassionate care requires more than heart. It requires long-term financial stability.
That is why we established the Living Legacy Endowment.
The Living Legacy Endowment was created to ensure that no one is denied access to dignified end-of-life care because of an inability to pay. Income generated from the endowment helps supplement the true cost of care at the Heavenly Home, including 24-hour caregiving, meals, personal care, emotional support, and the countless comforts that make our home feel like family.
Today, we are excited to announce a special opportunity to double your impact.
Thanks to the generosity of a compassionate donor, every gift made to the Living Legacy Endowment will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $50,000.
This means your contribution will go twice as far in helping provide comfort, dignity, and peace for residents at the Heavenly Home — not just today, but for generations to come.
An investment in the Living Legacy Endowment is more than a donation. It is a promise:
- That no one will face the end of life alone.
- That families will have a place of peace during life’s hardest moments.
- That compassion will continue long into the future.
Together, we can build a lasting legacy of love, dignity, and hope for those facing life’s final chapter.