Sarah Cordeiro of Tiverton always knew she wanted to spend her life helping others, but she wasn't entirely sure how. The 23 year old daughter of John and Teresa Cordeiro, with whom she lives in the house where she grew up, graduated from Tiverton High School in 2012 and went on to earn her bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. She was planning to return there for her masters degree in clinical mental health counseling, but life had other plans.

Just a week before beginning her program there — which included a position as a teaching assistant — she got a call from HopeHealth, a hospice and palliative care facility where she worked as an intern for her senior year in college. They wanted to offer her a full-time position.

She needed to think fast.

"I couldn't pass it up," said Ms. Cordeiro. "I had to change plans quickly, and enroll at Rhode Island College so I could take night classes and work during the day."

The job was a perfect fit for Ms. Cordeiro, despite her youth and relative lack of credentials. She has one thing that makes her exceptionally qualified to help people learn to live with grief: she's been living with it herself, for nearly a decade now.

"My sister Megan was exactly two years and one month younger than me, and we were very close," Ms. Cordeiro said. "She was a dancer, a soccer player. And at age 10, in December 2006, she was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia."

Despite extensive chemotherapy, radiation, and a bone marrow transplant, Megan Cordeiro lost her battle in June of 2008. The treatment was difficult, and Megan went into and out of remission, but Sarah remembers those as good days that she is grateful to have had with her sister. "So many memories were made in that time."

Ms. Cordeiro definitely thinks the experience made her a more compassionate person, and she thinks it has had the same effect on her older sister Chelsea as well. "I always imagined Chelsea would go into business — become a CEO," she laughed. "But she's going into social work too."

Certainly personal loss is not a prerequisite for grief counseling — Ms. Cordeiro notes that she has colleagues who have not suffered loss and are great at what they do. But the ability to work through some difficult days is absolutely mandatory. "I've had days where I spent most of my 30 mile commute home crying," she said. She has also had cases that she thought would be too difficult to bear, notably one in which she was assigned an 8 year old girl whose 3 year old sister was dying. "My initial thought was that I could not face this little girl, her story was too close to home. But then I realized that I was perfect for the job."

Ms. Cordeiro doesn't have a lot of down time these days, working 40 hours a week, running support groups, taking classes 2 nights a week until 10 p.m., and doing homework over the weekends, but she wouldn't have it any other way because she loves her work, helping people pick up the pieces after a devastating loss. "It never really felt like my plans at U Mass Dartmouth were going to happen," Ms. Cordeiro said. "This was meant to be."

Ms. Cordeiro also runs HopeHospice's Camp Braveheart, a 2-day camp for kids age 5-17 who are dealing with grief. This year, Camp Braveheart will be held on August 2 and 3, at Camp Aldersgate in Scituate. For more information, email Ms. Cordeiro at scordeiro@hopehealthco.org.