Journals Of Care
by Susan Hiller, Patient Volunteer

July 17, 2005

On a recent visit to St. Vincent Doctors Hospital, I attached my Lay Chaplain badge and walked up to the fourth floor to visit a mother and her day-old daughter. What a joy to be able to see that precious baby and have a prayer of thanksgiving with her mother!

On the stairs down to the second floor, I changed badges and became an Arkansas Hospice Patient Volunteer, going for the weekly visit with “my” Hospice patient. Despite her frail condition, she was coaxed into eating more than expected. As always, the pudding was her favorite.

Standing beside her, I was smitten with the contrast of these two experiences. Dying: an experience associated with finality, anxiety, and grief; birth: with the future, happiness, and joy. How much easier it is to visit a newborn than to sit beside a dying friend. However, I have come to realize through my volunteer work with Arkansas Hospice that the dying process is a precious time of connecting with one's loved ones, evaluating life's meaning, and providing care to those who need it in a very special way.

It is such a privilege to accompany someone in the final steps of their life’s journey. Arkansas Hospice is opening doors to our community through training and volunteer opportunities so that we can become comfortable with being a helper at this precious time of life. It may seem to others that my choice of Hospice work creates a paradox … but to me it does not … it is just a great and wonderful privilege.