Our Story
On Divine Mercy Sunday 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 global pandemic, we founded Divine Mercy Home in our home while providing end-of-life care for our own mom as she readied herself to leave earth behind to be united in eternity to her beloved Father in Heaven.
Within this caregiving cross placed into our arms, we sifted through many unexpected tosses and turns upon the deep waters within the Ocean of Mercy we found ourselves swimming in.
For us, help came from our Catholic community and parish. God showed up in many loving and unexpected ways. Little did we realize that deeply embedded within this caregiving and care-receiving cross, we would not only discover many hidden treasures, but encounter the Living God despite the many difficulties, challenges, and trials.
Through navigating on these uncharted waters, our continued prayer was to be able to accompany Mom the “right way” while adhering to the wishes she previously expressed to us. We sifted and prayed our way through just what this care might look like based on our Catholic faith while utilizing what secular medicine was also offering to us during the various turnstiles of elder care/accompaniment.
Mom passed naturally and peacefully in our arms following nine months of full-time caregiving in our home after her hip fracture at the age of 93. Although her moment of death was not exactly ‘happy’ in the earthly sense, it certainly was a very holy and beautiful passage, which only the Blessed Mother could have orchestrated. As daughter, I perceived myself in mid-wife mode helping mom transition into eternal life all the while being guided by Our Lady’s arms while at the foot of mom’s hospital bed/cross. During her final week, burdensome technology was replaced by the compassion of accompaniment to those she loved dearly, which was her life-long desire. In her last two hours with us, the Holy Spirit showed up through spontaneous prayers, songs, and loving comfort measures provided. Faith replaced fear, which my brother and I realized at her final earthly breath which she took at the time of the Doxology while live streaming the 9 am Mass from the Divine Mercy Shrine in Stockbridge, MA at the foot of her bed.
It was her ”Great Amen.”
It was as if we peacefully lifted her up to be received into the arms of Jesus to be ushered into the eternal loving gaze of Our Eternal Father.
She died as she lived—within the Mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, her lifelong devotion.
Fear simply has no sting, no room, in the presence of a dying holy person when accompanied by Christ with the presence of His Mother, our model of accompaniment.
Since Mom’s passing, the Holy Spirit has put together our team of loving, dedicated Catholic healthcare professionals to inaugurate our Divine Mercy Home board of directors who were voted in on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes 2022. Our Arlington Diocese Family Life Office in Northern Virginia has been encouraging our efforts to work closely with our parishes/pastors in introducing the notion of holy accompaniment via prayer/sacraments/companionship within our vulnerable aging population. This can be organically introduced via the already existing Respect Life ministries existing within our parishes.
We would like our motto of “Love begins at home” to not only indicate the physical structure from which this Christ-centered care is provided, but also to include the resources within the family and parish boundaries as well. In some cases, this loving accompaniment within the family God gives us as well as within the parish family may be where generational healing occurs and love actually does begin.
Whether it is the beginning of earthly life or a full circle return to where we began in being birthed into Eternal Life, Divine Mercy Home strives to support the diocese Respect Life office to assist God’s precious little ones a safe passage back home to Him…where love begins and continues into eternity.
Love never dies—it is Eternal.