We met in the summer of 2013, sharing a ride to the Women’s Herbal Conference in New Hampshire. At that time, we were both involved in organizing gatherings for women and in studying women’s spirituality and traditional practices across the globe. From the beginning we connected deeply, and quickly realized we shared many common interests, including a strong calling towards empowering women and specifically working with elder women to honor their roles in society.
We had been part of women circles and gatherings in Brooklyn for many years and had been seeking the opportunity to share these experiences with older women. Both of us shared complementary perspectives about old age and dying and felt called to work to contribute to a transformation of how Elders are treated in Western contemporary culture, separated as they so often are from the rest of society, ignored or forgotten, their usefulness and dignity undermined rather than honored.