When Sandra Clarke was on one of her first rounds as a nurse she had a patient who asked if she could sit with him. He was dying and did not want to be alone. Clarke promised him that she would return after she had taken care of her other patients. When she returned about 45 minutes later he was dead but his hand was stretched out as if it wanted to be held. She never forgot that man. That memory lead her to create the project, NO ONE DIES ALONE. She describes it as just a fancy volunteer telephone tree but it offers companionship to someone who would otherwise die alone.