25
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
PAT BRADFORD: So, you can be
a hospice patient at home, you
can be a hospice patient at the
hospital, or you can be a hospice
patient at Davis, at Liberty, at
the care center. The other aspect
is what you all mentioned, that
it’s a negative experience when,
by far, in my experience, it can
be the most positive experience
imaginable.
REV. JOHN BIRKENHEUER: My
mom was in palliative care in a nurs-ing
home. Not to take anything away
from the nursing home, but the care
was so much more involved having the
hospice nurses come in and check on
her a couple of times a week to feed
her, to bathe her. She had the oppor-tunity
to live for another three years.
She would laugh and joke with you
and she knew that a hospice nurse was
there and she wasn’t threatened by it.
NICOLE FREEBOURN: People
who don’t do this, say to me all the
time, ‘I don’t know how you do that
every day.’ Even my husband says that
to me. You would be surprised, but if
it’s something that you’re passionate
about and something that you believe
in, you care about, then it actually can
be a very beautiful experience to be
there with somebody when they pass.
REV. JD SIMMONS: I think it takes
a special type of person to work in a
facility where most everyone that comes
in, you’re going to give end of life care.
You know that and you’re going to
meet with families that are grieving and
people grieve in so many different ways.
Some get angry, and we all know that.
But for them to be able to navigate all
those emotions and still care for that
person, it’s a calling. I know that may
sound super spiritual, but I do believe
there is a calling for people to give them-selves,
because that’s what they’re doing.
Clockwise from top left: Aubriana’s Chef Tyson Amick plates brunch, menu,
cheese plate, salad with peaches and goat cheese, flat iron skillet steak and eggs with
horseradish crème frâiche, and coconut cake.