Natasha Phillips

After many years working in healthcare and gaining experience in financial planning, I now serve as Treasurer on the Threshold Choir Board. My home is in Wasilla, Alaska, where I teach Medical Law and Ethics classes at a community college. Five of my six children have moved out, but they still need their mom now and then. Being an Oma to my two Alaskan grandsons brings me real joy. Between finishing my doctorate and taking extra classes in fundraising, my schedule stays full, yet my board work with Threshold Choir remains a bright spot in each day.

Death has been my teacher. Losing two husbands and sitting beside friends and family in their final hours taught me what matters when words fail. Like a lighthouse in rough seas, music offers direction when nothing else can guide the way. I have seen how a simple song brings comfort not only to the dying but also to families caught in grief’s first waves. This organization matters because I know what it means to receive support during life’s hardest moments. Though I enjoy singing in groups, I am not yet ready to sing bedside. Instead, I offer what I can, financial knowledge and steady guidance.

The singers in Threshold Choir amaze me. They walk straight toward what most people run from. With voices steady and hearts open, they face death regularly and answer its silence with song. Their courage reminds me of old-growth trees, both flexible enough to bend with grief yet strong enough to stand firm when needed. I feel lucky to work alongside people who transform difficult moments into sacred ones. By managing our finances and helping with planning, I honor both those I have lost and those we serve. Being part of this beautiful organization, surrounded by people willing to do hard but necessary work, gives meaning to my own story of loss and healing.