All in a day's work

After few days of vacation, I returned to work today, the first day of the year. My first visit was to a patient named Bertha who was 100 years old today: She was born on 1/1/1910! She was a lovely lady, still with some of her faculties intact, and we had a nice visit. At the end, I took her fragile hands in mine and told her that she had a graceful face radiating peace and had eyes full of life and light. She was joyfully pleased and thanked me for the good words and told me that all my dreams for 2010 will come true. That was the first blessing of the day.

Then I moved on to my next patient who is 102. He too has his faculties. Morris told me that he stayed up until midnight to watch the ball drop in Time Square, NY,but missed it, because he did not realize that he was watching public television until the "whole thing was over." Poor guy, what do you expect when you are 102 years old.

My next assignment was an excubation, (removing of life support). Abe had a fall two weeks ago, and his brain was without oxygen for 15 minutes. He had pipes and tubes attached all over him. Abe was not conscious or able to respond. I sat down with his sister and our Nurse explaining the process, but his sister was very nervous. She did not want "to kill him." She wanted him to live. She was totally unrealistic about the prognosis, yet she did not have the courage to make that decision. She had to ask her therapist who was on vacation till Tuesday and wanted to do as the therapist suggested. I said to myself: "Why do people mortgage their brains to other people?" Why do they listen to opinions of others who have no stake in the case and consider that more important than their ow opinion? After nearly two hours of talking and and discussion the woman decided to wait.

she thought that both myself and our Nurse had an "aura" because we work in hospice. We told her that it was not about aura but about being realistic about life and embracing death as part of life. Those who fight death have not really understood the meaning of life.

Who said being hospice chaplain is a job? No, it is a vocation, a ministry that I am privileged to have. I thank God for the opportunity to be part of people's life at the end. It is a gift and a privilege indeed.