Overview: Mary Pearce, a hospice chaplain, has been providing spiritual support, kindness, and companionship to patients and their families in the counties of San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Orange County, and Ventura for the past 10 years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she started a private practice called Sister-Insync, where she counsels mainly women on topics such as goal setting, life transitions, stress, miscarriage, and job loss. Pearce’s duties as a hospice chaplain include contacting families, introducing herself, and exploring their spiritual backgrounds, as well as offering bereavement support and counseling youth when a loved one passes away.
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Growing up in South Central LA, Mary Pearce would walk to church with her family and sit in the main service as an eight-year-old. The church she attended didn’t have a children’s service, so Pearce would sit with her family. She felt like she understood everything her pastor was saying and thought the message of the sermon was meant for her, too.
Pearce attributes her spirituality to her family. She witnessed her mother go through hardships in her life and still maintain a great faith in God, which never wavered. Pearce’s father was a minister and inspired her to want to minister as well, as she felt a call to be a leader and offer counseling support.
She is now a hospice chaplain and has been one for 10 years. Pearce works for Resilience Hospice, which covers the counties of San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Orange County and Ventura. Not only is she a chaplain, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, she started a private practice called Sister-Insync, where she counsels mainly women, on topics like goal setting, life transitions, stress, miscarriage, and job loss.
Pearce earned her bachelor’s degree in Literature because she wanted to teach, and later became a substitute teacher. However, she also served as a Sunday school teacher at her church, which pulled her into the direction of enrolling at the Claremont School of Theology. Pearce decided she would teach religion at the community college level and was introduced to counseling as a possible career as well.
She decided to explore how to be a chaplain after her grandmother passed away in 2015. Pearce received support from her community who came by with fruit baskets and condolences, but she wanted to return the support. Though they didn’t ask for repayment, Pearce wondered how she could show up for people with comfort, guidance and support in the same capacity that they did for her. Pearce later received an endorsement from her church and went to Loma Linda University to complete bedside Clinical Pastoral Education Training.
“At the end of life, when doctors in the hospital discontinue care and transfer a person to hospice level of care, a person is assigned a nurse, a social worker, a chaplain and a home health aide,” Pearce shared.
As a hospice chaplain, Pearce’s duties include contacting families, introducing herself, and exploring their spiritual backgrounds. In her role, she offers spiritual support, kindness, and companionship.
Pearce shared that she is also there for the family to have unburdened time to do things that they need to do for themselves, knowing that their loved one is being looked after by her. Something as simple as time to take a shower, make themselves some tea, go for a walk around their block or check their mailbox, is what Pearce is able to give a concerned, at home caretaker.
As people navigate changes under the current Trump administration and the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that was passed in July 2025, Pearce said that for all patients, families and caregivers, conversations about hospice care have been different. According to Pearce, her conversations with her patients’ loved ones don’t only revolve around the hospital diagnosis, but also personal concerns about how new government policies are going to impact them.
“People were saying, ‘I’m older and I’m not going to live much longer, and some things are happening in this world that I don’t agree with, but again, I’m older and I’m not going to be here long, and it’s going to impact my family and my grandchildren more so than me,’” Pearce said.
“I had a Jewish patient who was saying, when the President pardoned certain people who attacked the Capitol, those people were wearing things that were anti Jewish and that they were afraid. I have families that are Hispanic and they’re concerned about letting in chaplains/social workers during this time. I have families that are LGBT, and they’re worried about having their marital rights taken away and being acknowledged as the next of kin,” Pearce continued.
Pearce noted that it is a scary time for many of her clients and their families, but it’s the job of the chaplain to offer spiritual support during complex times such as these. Pearce calls it an “80/20 balance” where about 20% of the time Pearce and her clients will discuss what is going on in the world, and 80% of the time they focus on what is going on with them in their home. Pearce grounds them with questions like “what can they trust right now?” and “what do they love right now?” and “what is bringing them joy right now?”
Another part of the bereavement support that coincides with chaplaincy is counseling youth when a loved one passes. Pearce stated that sometimes the loved one who passed, such as a grandmother, may have started to sleep in the kids room and the kid may be scared to sleep in their room again. Pearce helps guide the children to know the presence of their loved one that passed is not spooky but loving and caring.
“We will have a meeting with the family, and we’ll color, we’ll talk, and I’ll ask them things like, tell me about grandma… And then I’ll say, What did grandma feel like? What did grandma smell like? What was grandma’s favorite food? And then they’ll realize that, Grandma isn’t here, but grandma isn’t something to be scared of,” Pearce said.
Pearce finds her chaplaincy work to be very rewarding. She recognized that feeling is not common in all fields of work, but in hers she is met with appreciation, thankfulness, and gratitude immediately. It builds her up to know that something she did or said registered with her clients.
One of Pearce’s patients who lives in the San Fernando Valley was a grandmother, and during one visit Pearce had sat with the granddaughter who had a “tough exterior.” Pearce and the granddaughter found out they shared some similarities in their human experience and even after the grandmother passed, Pearce and her granddaughter remained friends.
“I want to ask people, when someone is approaching the end of life, to consider chaplaincy or letting the chaplain visit, just to express any private [things]…or whatever they want to express,” Pearce said.
She is also passionate about letting those who are caretakers to their family know that the love, support, and hands-on work they do does, in fact, matter and that their presence is important.
Pearce said despite whatever is going on in the world, she always tells people to trust themselves, God and their support system. She also wants them to know that advocacy looks different, it could be prayer or protesting.
“I tell people, especially at the end of life and their families, to do what you can do. Because sometimes prayer is enough. Sometimes you cannot show up physically to be an activist. Sometimes you can vote. You have agency somewhere, that you can use,” Pearce stated.
She also believes that her experience as a chaplain has been a good one and that she doesn’t want people to worry about her capacity to take on chaplaincy and counseling. Pearce fills her own cup by loving who she is, hiking, weight training, spending time with her three children who are ages nine, six and two, and having good female friendships that she values.
“I also feel that God provides. I’m never completely depleted or tired because I get a kind of feeling from what I’m called to do in this world with people, with God’s people,” Pearce shared.
“I don’t want people to be worried about me. I’m facing some of the same political concerns, but I trust myself. I trust God. I trust my support system. I pray, I advocate, I vote, and so I think that we all are all in it together, and that we can have some reassurance that it will be okay,” Pearce continued.