Sr. Ann Billard, OLM, Ph.D.
Charleston, SC
eldermidwife@comcast.net
https://sistersofcharityolm.org/sponsored-ministry/
In 2001, I began developing and coordinating Transformative Aging programs for older adults, working primarily with Catholic religious communities. What began as a way to provide older Catholic religious with tools to foster one’s spiritual growth in retirement evolved into re-visioning aging as a call and embracing the challenges of each phase of the journey’s call. When one is called to aging, there is a mission. When introduced to Rachael Freed’s book, Your Legacy Matters, and then the chance to be trained as a certified legacy facilitator, I recognized an opportunity to develop my next workshop focusing on a way to assist elders in a process of sharing their spiritual legacy and thus completing their life’s mission. Admitting one is aging, grieving personal losses, doing the life review and reweaving the story, provides a way to discover the spiritual gifts of the journey - those heirlooms - to pass on to others through a spiritual legacy letter. Sharing one’s spiritual legacy is a way to plant seeds of hope for the future.
