Author and speaker Kimberly Paul, who specializes in helping people feel more comfortable talking about living well and dying well.

May 30, 2019

NORTH CONWAY, NH --  Can you imagine death and dying as a beautiful and peaceful event that is a natural part of life? Visiting Nurse Home Care & Hospice of Carroll County wants you to know that it’s not only possible but can be a likely outcome with thoughtful advance care planning. This topic will be the focus of a special event they are hosting on June 11, 2019, as they welcome author and speaker Kimberly Paul, who specializes in helping people feel more comfortable talking about living well and dying well.

This free event will take place at Zip’s Pub at Cranmore Mountain Resort in North Conway, NH. Doors open at 5pm for registration check in and the event will run from 5:30pm - 7:30pm. Dinner will be served. Kimberly C. Paul will share her philosophy about the “death positive movement,” her “Live Well, Die Well” podcasts and new book, “Bridging the Gap - Life Lessons from Dying.”

VNHCH Advance Care Planning Liaison Ashlee Chaine, explained the importance of bringing this event to the Valley. “This is part of our ongoing work around advance care planning.. Recently a family member of a patient came to the office and said “I never thought death could be beautiful and I never thought she could die at home and both of these happened”. We want to help our community members have less uncomfortable feelings around death with advance planning and healthy conversations.”

Sandy Ruka, Executive Director of VNHCHadded, “We plan for babies, college and buying a house, but it’s still taboo to talk about planning for the rest of your life. This workshop with Kimberly will help us have these conversations in a safe and welcoming forum.”

To help facilitate these conversations, Chaine explained that they encourage people to sign up for the event in pairs or couples. Each pair will receive two free copies of “Bridging the Gap.” Additional copies will be available for sale as well. Advance registration is required, you can register by visiting VNHCH.org and clicking on the “Live Well Die Well Tour” image in the top right corner or by calling (603) 356-7006 x39. Admission will be capped at 50.

Kimberly C. Paul chose to leave her dream job in television and film to discover the authentic stories at the bedside of the dying. Working for hospice was supposed to only be a temporary job but ultimately spread over 17 years and ultimately lead to her true calling. It lead to unexpected and bold intentions to become one of the leaders in the death positive movement happening in the United States today.

She created a podcast, Death by Design, that hosts industry leaders in medicine as well as artists, designers, caregivers and authors who are reclaiming their voice around their own

experiences with death and dying. Each conversation is meant to inspire others to engage in difficult conversations around their own deaths, actively make decisions about how and where they want to die and begin to change the taboo subject of death and dying into the ultimate gift of connection with family and friends. Death by Design Podcast is in its 2nd season and continues to normalize difficult conversations, discover ordinary individuals making extraordinary differences in their local communities and highlight people who are developing new ways to assist the Baby Boomers as they design their own end of life.

Paul seeks to connect with people and communities, and share how she learned to live life boldly at the bedside of hospice patients.

The Live Well Die Well is supported by over 20 sponsors including Cabot Cheese, My Last Soundtrack, INEDLA, National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, POLST Paradigm and many more who support community education in an effort to empower individuals to reclaim death as a human experience and not a medical event. You can follow the tour at www.livewelldiewelltour.com.

The event is co-hosted by Memorial Hospital. For more information on VNHCH visit them online at www.VNHCH.org.