Before Victoria Ivicek ever answered the phone for a grieving family, she was one of them.

When her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, Victoria watched his decline unfold faster than anyone expected. Hospice of the Chesapeake came into their home during those final six months — and what she witnessed in that time didn't look anything like what she thought hospice was. There was comfort. There was presence. There was a kind of care that didn't feel like giving up. It felt, in her words, like the opposite.

That experience brought her to the other side of the phone. Today, Victoria works as part of the clinical support team at Hospice of the Chesapeake, and she carries her father's story into every conversation she has with families navigating the same uncertainty she once felt.

Episode 1 of To Know Ends is for anyone who has ever feared the word hospice. By the end, you might not anymore.