How death doulas guide people through the end of life

Sandella, an end-of-life doula, speaking to Dorcas Miller, 94, who has dementia, inside Miller's home at the Redeemer Village in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania. Photos: Heather Khalifa/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Bill Siemering found himself Googling what age people die of natural causes in their sleep. He'd tell his wife where to find salmon cakes at the farmer's market when he was no longer alive. He was certain death was drawing near, though he had no terminal diagnosis.

"I had been talking to my wife about dying and she was not pleased," Siemering, 88, said in a recent interview near his Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, home in the United States. "People don't like to hear about this."