There’s a special bond that exists between people who have experienced hospice care. Whether you’ve been in the role of family caregiver or an end of life professional, or you work in an industry that comes alongside hospice teams, that shared experience connects us.
Throughout my career as a hospice nurse, there have been numerous interactions where a person shared the hospice event in his own life when I explained what I do for a living. It’s an instant connection. We want to share our stories. We want to talk about it with someone who understands what that’s like.
Photo by Helen Bauer, The Heart of Hospice
Being present for a last breath.
Communicating hard news while keeping tears to yourself.
Holding a loved one who no longer knows you.
Listening for the deafening silence of a heart that has stopped.
Stepping in where you’re not welcome but have a job to do.
Trying desperately to preserve dignity that disease has stolen.
Accepting new paths with unavoidable endings.
Honoring a culture you don’t share.
Taking on a portion of someone else’s grief to ease their burden.
Caregivers, both unpaid and professional, do all of this and much more every day. Our partners in providing care, including funeral home staff, pharmacists, and medical equipment suppliers, do the same.
Every single end of life experience is different but the intensity of walking a hospice journey is incredible. While it’s overwhelming at times, it can also be filled with defining moments. Those moments change us forever.
These are our hospice journeys. We are caregivers. We are social workers and nurses. We are end of life doulas. We are volunteers. We are therapists and nurse practitioners. We are chaplains. We are doctors and aides. We are comforters and companions. We are family.
No matter who you are, or where you are in your hospice journey, you are The Heart of Hospice.