Garrett Drew Ellis
Owner, Writer, End of Life Doula
Writing and finding himself in the field of memoir, life review, death and grief for as long as he can remember, Garrett Drew Ellis established himself as a professional writer in 2005 and as an End of Life Doula in 2019. That same year, Garrett founded Beyond Morning, offering end of life doula and memoir writing services for the terminally ill and aged. He received training from INELDA (The International End of Life Doula Association) in 2019.
Garrett is the owner, principal writer and EOL Doula at Beyond Morning LLC. He teaches as a trainer and facilitator with INELDA where he is also a Contributing Editor to its newsletter. He offers private duty nursing care as a Certified Nursing Assistant in the state of Pennsylvania and has written over 30 books on behalf of others. A Study Circle facilitator with the Institute of Birth, Breath and Death as well as a Narrative Medicine Facilitator in Training with the Northwest Narrative Medicine Collaborative, he is the author of “Write Until You Feel Better” and the forthcoming “Writing in Memoriam”. Garrett lives and works in Central Pennsylvania with his wife and 4 children and enjoys reading epic novels and memoirs.
My mother died when I was young, before I truly got to know her. All my life, people shared stories about her, stories about who she was before her death. Because of that constant practice of storytelling and remembrance, I had ease in my moments of grief. Memories about her felt like a cool cloth on a feverish forehead.
A valuable part of my grieving process, those memories taught me to believe strongly in two things: that death doesn't truly happen until our stories are no longer told and that everyone deserves support during the dying and grieving process. No one should live or die alone. Beyond Morning is my attempt to offer people two sacred chances that I wish I had more of: the chance to document and share their life's story and the gift of support to engage death and grief in as peaceful of a way as possible.
