I’ve been working away on my paper on hospice volunteering for the International Palliative Care conference in Montreal. When I first started writing, I thought I might run out of things to say, but I very quickly found I had too much! I could go on for hours, but, alas, I have only 15 minutes! So I’d better stick to what really speaks to me:
-hospice volunteers are amazing, dedicated, caring, committed people
-they volunteer in hospice care because they know that they can make a difference in people’s lives
-they need to feel that the work they are doing has meaning and significance (no matter what the work is, they need to see how it connects to the hospice mission
-they bring tremendous skills, experience, empathy: they need to be recognized for the unique individuals they are
As I return to my writing, I feel enormous gratitude for the people I’ve met in the past few months at Kensington Hospice, Cornwall Hospice, Beth Donovan Hospice, Mission Hospice, Roger’s House, and the Hospice at May Court.
More about them in the days to come!
My father is 90 years old & my mother is 81. I live away from them & am practically a single mom myself, so my first priority is my daughter. My dad is as ok as possible at that age, physically,but losing touch with reality day by day & my mom has recently been very ill & there has been a sharp decline all around, all of a sudden.It is really hard.They live in India & I live in Dubai. Although that’s not too far away; I know that anything can happen at anytime & there is really no way to ‘prepare’ for that. I hope I can be with them during the end; to hold their hand & stroke their head. We do not have hospice volunteers in India (at least, I don’t think so).So for all you amazingly compassionate people, who take the time & huge emotional involvement to do this work; I thank you on behalf of the people who can’t be with their loved ones when they are really ill or nearing the end. Death is a reality and very difficult to confront, in any form.There is a huge amount of service involved in your work & I do hope you take the time to love yourselves & know that there is immense gratitude for having you in the world.
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