Ileana-Maria Harbour came to the USA in 1983 from Costa Rica. She is a registered nurse who graduated from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, in 2001 and received her bachelor’s degree in nursing. She has a special love for the elderly and has worked in geriatrics for 10 years in a nursing home in Manassas. During this time, Ileana-Maria discovered that her great love was to take care of the dying; she became a hospice volunteer for a large hospice corporation, and she was eventually hired as a hospice nurse.

Ileana-Maria has experience working with the whole life spectrum, from newborns to advanced age. She has supported patients as a homecare crisis care nurse, spending 12-hour shifts with patients and educating and supporting families to care for their loved ones. Ileana-Maria believes that the end of life is very difficult, but that it can also be a special time of deep love, faith, care, reconciliation, and supernatural beauty. In addition to providing medical support, she believes that it is of the utmost importance to provide spiritual accompaniment, always respecting cultural and different belief backgrounds.

Ileana-Maria loves to prepare herself daily by attending Mass and reciting a Rosary. She has often called a priest to administer the sacraments to patients, especially the Anointing of the Sick, and she prays the Divine Mercy Chaplet and Rosary with her patients and families. Ileana-Maria believes life is sacred from the moment of conception to natural death, and she will always defend life in all circumstances. She is grateful to God for her vocation, and she feels privileged and honored to help souls in the preparation for eternal life.

Ileana-Maria shares: “St. Joseph, be with me and all who are dear to me in our last moments, that we may eternally sing the praises of JESUS, MARY, AND JOSEPH. Fiat! Jesus, I trust in you!”