Cynthia Sperberg, Founder

I have to start out by saying "I have always loved cemeteries!" 

They are a place of history, solace, intrigue, and where our ancestors rest. They are also places greatly misunderstood, feared, neglected, and forgotten. In other cultures around the globe, the world of the living and the dead are not so divided. Practices like ancestor worship, and Day of the Dead celebrations are commonplace and festive. Here, we have walls and scary stories - one of the scariest being the impact this is having on the environment, our economy and our human consciousness.  All of these thoughts were going through my head on a flight home when I first envisioned Living Leaves, and the place I want to eventually rest when I die.

I work in aviation, but my heart has long called me to do much more. In 2019 I decided to try to merge my skills in a way that contributes to the betterment of our environment, to live more consciously, and to help individuals and communities extract  the profound meaning that exists in each arrival and departure,

Although I am a flight attendant, I haven't always had my head in the clouds though. For many years previous, I had my feet firmly on the ground, exploring social activism, wildlife rescue and care, research and writing, and I even got my private pilot's license.  I received my B.A. in Anthropology from UC Berkeley, and studied Social Anthropology at the University of Kent, Canterbury. After college, I worked briefly in the field of social science research before transitioning to Public Radio, interning first with the News Department at KPFA in Berkeley, then as the first news reporter devoted to Clark County at WYSO in Yellow Springs, OH.

In 2022 I completed my Conscious Dying Coach and Sacred Passage Doula training with The Conscious Dying Institute in Colorado. In 2021 I began  a specially designed program, under the guidance of the late Stephen Gaddis, founder of the Narrative Therapy Initiative in Massachusetts,  in order to help better assist people and communities in re-authoring their experiences and writing their departure stories. 

In 2024 I partnered with Linda Gould, otherwise known as The Good Death Doula, to create The Cemetery Chronicles: Stories Unearthed. This podcast is dedicated to telling the stories of local cemeteries, their communities, and the people buried there. Since that time, Linda and I have partnered with Kim Adams of Omega House in creating Delaware's first death and dying professional network. in 2025 I also joined the board at one of the oldest non profit cemeteries in the state, Historic Riverview Cemetery.

Although it was in my jump seat on a flight when I first envisioned the seed of what Living Leaves has come to represent today, it has been through my partnerships, and within the communities I encounter,  that this initiative has, and will continue to develop. 

It is my goal to connect people and communities to new ways of utilizing public spaces, envisioning death, incorporating the environment, all the while giving voice to individual and community experiences that live on long after we depart.  

So it’s not just a departure story really. it’s an arrival to a new way of thinking about and experiencing life through death. 

And departures and arrivals are my specialty! 

Welcome.