at the table
CAROLE BOWMAN GREEN
Carole Bowman Green is a Certified Music
Practitioner. A harpist, she provides bedside
volunteer
therapeutic
harp music in
LCFH &LCC, and
bedside at The
Davis Community.
She previously
served as the Grace
United Methodist
Church director
of children’s and
youth ministries.
Ms. Green holds a
seminary degree
(MTS) in pastoral counseling and certification
in clinical pastoral education. She was
a caregiver for both of her parents with
home hospice in the mid-1990s.
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com 23
WBM
PAT BRADFORD: Tell us the biggest misconception
about end of life care.
DR. THOMAS LEE: Probably the biggest one is, ‘We’re giving
up.’ Somebody is sick, they call in hospice and we’re giving up
on that person, we’re not trying to help them or we’re not trying
to alleviate anything.
SELENA BOYETTE: The biggest misconception is that
hospice is for the dying. Hospice helps you live until you die.
CHARLES LONG: The biggest misconception is that you don’t
have a choice. In the medical world we’re all trained to save people
and treat people, and a lot of times you don’t have any choice
when you go in the hospital. They just do things to you, and
you don’t oftentimes get to choose because they’re there to save
you or make you better. In the hospice world, you are shifted to
being able to make decisions on how things happen in your life.
DR. KAREN REICHOW: ‘They stop all your medicines’ and
‘just fill you up with morphine’ or ‘they don’t let you eat when
you go over there.’ It’s somehow this horribly fearful and painful
thing, and those are all huge myths. When you have hospice care,
it’s really the gold standard for end-of-life care.
REV. JOHN BIRKENHEUER: When I first got involved with
hospice, the thought was ‘Hospice is there. When are we going to
have the funeral?’
NICOLE FREEBOURN: A common myth is that we come in
and that person is going to die tomorrow, in the next week, in
the next month. We try to emphasize that we’re not here to
timestamp anybody, and we’re here to add life to their days,
Top right: Carole Bowman Greene, harpist, is a healing therapies practitioner. In addition to being at the table, she brought her harp to
entertain the other Let’s Talk guests as they arrived for a meet-and-greet reception of buttermilk biscuits, cheddar garlic biscuits and
croissants served with iced tea, coffee and orange juice. Bottom, left: Simeon, the therapy dog also greeted guests upon arrival. The
affectionate rescue retriever is pictured here with his handler, Katherine Engle, and Rev. JD Simmons.