“I absolutely love being a mom,” says Wendy Clifford. “I mean, I love my two daughters to the ends of the earth. But I always had the feeling it wasn’t the only thing I was meant to do.” So after eight years as a stay-at-home mom, Clifford decided to go back to work. She had been a radiation therapist before having kids, so that seemed like a logical move. “What I found is that while I enjoyed being back with people with cancer, I realized that there was so much pressure just to push patients through the system. There was no time to talk with them about how they were managing.” That’s when Clifford had a breakthrough: She could help patients move through the health care system, offer a compassionate ear, and provide the tools to “access their own power to live their lives more fully.”
I was doing stand-up paddleboard yoga the other day with a friend, and she said that we kept up with the younger people. It never crossed my mind that I wasn’t one of the younger people.
For the past six months the 41-year-old entrepreneur has been coaching people with cancer—and she’s discovered she has a passion for the work. “It really leaves me feeling so fulfilled,” she says. “I’m finding that I get so much out of it.” The member at Portland’s WeWork Custom House has also started working with other mothers with kids going off to school. “Some are struggling, like I was,” she says. “They haven’t given themselves permission to have their own identity back.”
Photos: Tom Bender