My Story
Offering insights into the voice and perspective behind the work
My Creative Process
I began thinking of writing as a medium for sharing stories when a good friend died of COVID-19 in the first few months of lockdown. The trauma and injustice of his death were strongly felt by everyone in his community. I wanted to tell his story to remember and honor him—and so, I resorted to writing. This way of processing my grief over his death revealed the power of storytelling through words.
Now, the stories of the dying are my inspiration. I write to tell their stories and share the wisdom I’ve gained from them on living a life with meaning and purpose. Death is such a taboo subject in society. The more we can normalize the conversation around death and dying, the less there is to fear. There is much to be learned about living by looking at our own mortality.
As an end-of-life doula, I have the privilege of being the container of many stories from the dying. I met these people when they were gravely ill and supported them till their deaths. They graciously let me into their lives, revealed their authentic selves, and entrusted their inner thoughts, fears, and hopes to me. Their stories—of life, love, adventure, loss, and regret—offer us, the ones left behind, insight into how to live more fully in the present moment.
My intention as an author is to honor the dead by remembering and writing their stories of living and dying and to do so with grace and excellence.
My hope for you, the reader, is that your curiosity is sparked, and you begin to wonder what death and dying are all about.
My Bio
Virginia Chang, Ph.D., is a certified end-of-life doula and founder of Till The Last. She works with the dying and their families/caregivers to approach end of life in a positive, meaningful, and affirming way. She works as a doula privately and as a hospice volunteer for VNS Health. She sits on VNS Health's Ethics Committee and Review Board and advises on matters of ethical significance to its hospice and palliative care program.
Virginia is also an instructor for the University of Vermont End-of-Life Doula Professional Certificate program as well as an established mentor in the field. Virginia educates about and advocates for positive death awareness and regularly gives talks and workshops at hospitals, medical schools, and community centers across the country.
To learn more about her work as an end-of-life doula, please visit her website at tillthelastdoula.com
Her formal education includes an S.B. in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Stanford University. She had two previous careers, one as a research scientist specializing in new drug design for the pharmaceutical industry and then as a chemical contamination expert in the environmental field. As a result, Virginia can have a fine focus on issues while maintaining a broad perspective. She is a lifelong learner and an academic at heart. More recently, Virginia was a stay-at-home mother raising two terrific children.