Life-and-death situation. The phrase suggests a moment of crisis and, hopefully, a heroic intervention of some sort. But as Susie Sarkisian knows, most life-and-death situations are hardly dramatic but instead merely inevitable, drawn out and sometimes both beautiful and painful at the same time. Someone’s aging dad has bronchial cancer. Mom’s recent forgetfulness and repetitive phone calls? Uh-oh. For adult children especially, these developments can be upsetting, stressful and complicated. “But you don't have to go it alone.” That’s Susie’s mantra. She’s a certified professional coach who specializes in navigating aging in families – and she does what she does because of her dad.

Susie grew up in Charlotte, N.C., the third of Mike and Caroline Myers’ four kids and was raised to think about others. “We were the family that always stopped for a broken down car on the road.” Susie studied religion in college and was a bit of a gypsy after that – lots of travel while doing mostly social work with teens, runaways, and foster care –  but found her professional focus when her father was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia. That was devastating. Susie loved her dad. Everybody did. Mike was a veteran, a writer and educator, a funny, creative, ambitious, irrepressible force. One revealing footnote: Mike as a Davidson College grad was the man behind one of the most infamous pranks in higher-ed history. As the Class of ‘53 alumni secretary, he gathered updates from fellow classmates for the alumni newsletter. Mike ‘created’ a classmate named Bill Edwards who over 10 years traveled the world, fathered triplets, and took down a drug cartel. When the joke was revealed, it was national news and Bill is now an integral part of Davidson lore. Yes, Mike was a character and a smart man, and when he was diagnosed, he preemptively apologized to his family “for all I will put you through.” He knew then, and Susie now knows, the challenges a family faces during the decline and loss of a parent.

Mike was right, of course, as Caroline and the kids found out. None of it is easy. But the experience changed Susie. The accompanying photo was taken on her wedding day in 1999. Her dad had already been diagnosed by then and he died seven years later, at 75 years old. By coincidence on that very day three years later, Susie passed a Life Coach Certification exam that eventually led to a job at an assisted living facility in White Plains, N.Y. She was there for 12 years – as the Director of Family Services – and last summer left to start her own company, allowing her to focus on “her favorite part of her job” -- coaching family members.  She helps families through times of anxiety and uncertainty, and guides them through decisions and hard conversations. The decline and impending death of an aging parent is sad enough and with it comes a confluence of issues for adult children who often have kids of their own. It can break families or bring them closer together, and Susie knows first-hand how siblings working together, with support, can change the experience entirely. “I know this is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing,” she says. “I know it for sure.”