Jim & Lisa’s Circle Home

 When Elise Lark discovered the home for the dying comfort care model many years ago, it felt like a homecoming for her, one aligning with and informing a personal vision and professional ethos as an oncology social worker. This care model, safely practiced for decades in northern New York, offers a humble and homey, non-medical, grassroots solution to the end-of-life caregiver crisis, complementing and enhancing hospice services within communities. It inspired her to share this dream with others.

In 2012, Elise collaborated with Barbara Sarah and Laurie Schwartz to found the nonprofit Circle of Friends for the Dying (CFD) with the mission of establishing the first such home in the Mid-Hudson Valley to serve those with the greatest need and the fewest options.

Jim & Lisa’s Circle Home is a welcoming abode for people in need of a home and a circle of support in the final turn of the wheel. Everyone recognizes a place that looks like and exudes the feeling of belonging. It can happen without words. And while some people may crave the prospect of youth and eternal life, ordinary life—a mortal, human life—has a simple, ordinary ending. A peaceful exit off the wheel.

The home can accommodate two residents at a time under hospice care. This is what the CFD co-founders and dedicated board members have been visualizing for nearly a decade—a safe, comfortable dwelling to offer people who want and need a home, not an institutional facility, in which to live out their last months and days.

To read more about Jim & Lisa’s story, click here.