About Elena
My name is Elena Cordova and I work with the dying.
I haven’t always done this: I spent most of my adult life as a scholar of art history and an archivist, working at institutions large and small throughout the northeast. But then my mother, who battled breast cancer for the better part of a decade, received a terminal diagnosis. My life changed. I stopped working to care for her as her body slowed down and her death approached.
So many of us find ourselves making these kinds of decisions. I had always been a primary caregiver for my mother, so it was a natural step to be involved in her end-of-life care. But then the world changed, too: the Covid-19 pandemic began, upending so many lives, so many families, so many plans. It became clear to me in that moment, as I cared for my mother in her final weeks, while so many others were doing the same, that something needed to be done about the way we care, as individuals and as a society, for our dying. So I decided to become a death doula.
Ours is a society that too often neglects the specific emotional and logistical challenges of death and grief. It is my work to support, accompany, and advocate for the dying and their loved ones. I am here to help.
I have an end-of-life doula professional certificate from the University of Vermont; have completed a six-month death doula mentorship with Jill Schock of Death Doula L.A; and am a hospice volunteer.