Reaching for the Stars

A long-time hospice volunteer-turned-patient is changing the way people think about hospice care while she pursues her dream of becoming the first hospice patient in space.

For 15 years, Pam Harter supported patients and families as a hospice volunteer with a branch of the Providence health system in Napa, California, offering presence and compassion during life’s most meaningful moments. Now, at age 69, she is living with a rare genetic condition that affects her vascular system called pseudoxanthoma elxasticum. After years of complex medical treatment and difficult decisions about additional procedures, Harter opted for hospice care from the same provider she served for many years.

With the support of the care team at Providence at Home with Compassus, a joint venture between Providence and Compassus formed in 2024, Harter stepped away from what she called “invasive” treatments to focus on what mattered most to her—quality of life.

“Hospice is giving me the comfort to keep living instead of just sitting around thinking about dying,” Harter said.

Since choosing hospice, she has traveled extensively with her husband to Italy, Croatia, Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands. Now Harter is pursuing her most ambitious dream yet: becoming the first hospice patient in space.

Harter is serious about this ambition. Thanks to correspondence with the CEOs of companies that engage in space exploration and NASA, she has received a private tour of Virgin Galactic’s facility at Spaceport America in New Mexico, and in September, she plans to go to Bordeaux, France, to undergo in-person astronaut training.

“Every day, I get an email from somebody else, either hospice-related or space-related,” Harter said. “There’s no time for any sadness. Once your diagnosis is terminal, the sooner you get on with hospice, the better it is for everyone. Get the comfort, get the support. Instead of giving up, it’s giving you life.”

Harter said she wants to help change the public conversation about hospice—showing that with the right support, hospice can create space for meaning, connection and extraordinary possibility. She said her impression of hospice has changed considerably upon receiving her diagnosis.

“No one knows when their last days are going to be, and what hospice does has made me throw caution to the wind,” she said.