Introducing Snowy Lajoie: Hospicare's New Bereavement Counselor
Hospicare’s bereavement program welcomes Snowy Lajoie, our new bereavement counselor. Snowy’s work has been shaped by both professional experience and personal loss, and by a steady commitment to making space for grief to be seen, held, and supported.
“I come to bereavement care after a lifelong journey of being alongside death and grief,” Snowy says.
She began her social work career in Massachusetts, working in low-income preschools around Worcester. During the early years of the opioid crisis, she found herself having difficult but important conversations with very young children: preschoolers who were already carrying the weight of losing caregivers to overdose and addiction.
“That experience quickly taught me how to talk with children about death and loss,” she explains, “and how early grief can enter a person’s life.”
From there, Snowy transitioned into community mental health clinics in both Massachusetts and New York. Over time, her work continued to center on the realities of trauma, grief, and major life transitions. For the past six years, she has been in community private practice, with a focus on nature-based therapy while supporting people through trauma, grief, and loss.
Her connection to end-of-life care also extends into the community. She has served on the Board of Trustees and as a burial volunteer at Greensprings Natural Cemetery, experiences that deepened her understanding of how ritual, nature, and community can support the grieving process.
Snowy’s path to Hospicare was also shaped by two losses close to home: her father’s sudden death in 2019, and her uncle’s anticipated death while on palliative care in 2024.
“Being able to sit at my uncle’s bedside, surrounded by family, and sing to him as he transitioned was profoundly different from the sudden losses I had experienced before,” Snowy says. “That time was deeply transformative, and I came away wishing that everyone could have the option of dying peacefully, surrounded by care and love.”
As she begins her work with Hospicare, Snowy is especially looking forward to the people she’ll be working alongside.
“I am most excited about the opportunity to work with a team of caring, open-hearted, and like-minded people,” she shares. “Being with death is such a unique and life-changing experience, and I am grateful to be doing this work alongside everyone here at Hospicare.”
She’s also eager to build relationships across the communities we serve and help make grief something people don’t have to carry alone.
“I’m looking forward to building trusting relationships with the people and communities we serve, and to help create spaces where grief is acknowledged and supported rather than rushed or minimized,” Snowy says.
Looking ahead, she’s excited to expand Hospicare’s bereavement offerings with approaches that honor creativity and connection to the natural world, especially through creative art therapy and nature-based bereavement groups.
“Bereavement care reminds people that their loss matters and that they matter,” Snowy says. “What I hope everyone understands about death and loss is that each of us has our own journey with grief—no one’s experience or process is exactly the same. There is space to discover what your grief ‘needs,’ moment to moment.”
She returns to a quote that captures what she hopes grief support can offer—not a way around pain, but a way through it.
“As Rumi said, ‘The wound is the place where the light enters you.’ From great and profound pain and sadness can come great and profound healing and transformation.”