NICOLE FREEBOURN: It can be really beautiful, if they’re comfortable,
and it can just be a really wonderful experience and not one that is scary
or sad.
CHARLES LONG: It’s very rewarding to me to be able to see the
assistance that you give, to watch those tears sort of dissolve and them
be able to enjoy those last days, instead of being fearful and always
wondering what is going to happen next.
SELENA BOYETTE: At the end of life, you don’t get a do-over. Most
of us are probably called to this because of personal experience we had,
that made us know that hospice was okay.
DR. THOMAS LEE: A lot of times when the patient is in the hospital
and is very, very sick, we can usually do a reasonable job of taking
away a lot of physical symptoms. Perhaps the biggest reward I ever
get is when we take that next step and that person has something not
quite right in their life. Maybe they didn’t get along with one of their
children or maybe they have an issue where they weren’t quite there
with God. Sometimes when you can control their symptoms and they
have little clarity, the family will come together or they’ll get a moment
where they really take that next step and then you see the true peace.
BRETT BLIZZARD: The death of our parents or loved ones,
I compare it to a club that none of us want to be members of.
DR. KAREN REICHOW: We’re already members of that club, it’s
just about being human and having that connection. It really makes me
feel like the best doctor I could be.
REV. JD SIMMONS: I think the most beautiful experience I’ve ever
seen in hospice was a member of my church who had no family, was
alone, and went to hospice. The nurses and the caregivers recognized
that he was alone in the world and I saw them ratchet up their care, their
touching, their love to someone they didn’t know … I’ll never forget it.
CAROLE GREEN: One evening, there was a person the nurses had
told me, there was nobody with them. This was a pretty down-and-out
person and so I went in and played probably longer than I ever have. It
was just the sense of how sacred that really is. That is the role of thera-peutic
music versus the music therapy in the traditional setting. With
hospice, you’re letting that family make decisions, and in playing music,
I’m letting the patient make me play by the way they breathe, their ten-sion,
I try to read that as much as I can. But what I have noticed is that
the minute I start playing, inevitably a family member will start crying.
I’m always, always just so filled with the sense that this is so right. This is
such a good thing for human beings to do for one another.
BRETT BLIZZARD: It’s like the hymn: “It Is Well With My Soul.”
CHARLES LONG: A story comes to mind where there was a gentleman
in the care center who wanted to see his horse one more time and the
staff arranged for the horse to come outside on the patio and brought the
horse so the gentleman could see his horse.
REV. JOHN BIRKENHEUER: The funny part of listening to you
is the realization that we go to minister to these people and we are
Julie Robinson of Airlie Moon styled the house for the
reception and brunch. Fresh flowers and greenery
were arranged by Chelsea Neidenthal of Fiore Fine
Flowers. Carole and Richard Johnson generously lent
the use of their home featured in the
July 2012 issue of WBM.
october 2013 26
WBM