Tag: Spring 2011
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The spiritual dimension of facilitating advance directives planning: The congregational setting as a vital resource
Kathleen BlanchfieldRomeoville, Illinois Introduction As a registered nurse, chaplaincy intern, and faith community nurse, I have been privileged to assist in advance directives planning and implementation in the congregational setting. A blessing of working as a faith community nurse is the ability to engage others in the subject of advance care planning in a protected environment…
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Immortal death: before and after
Karen De LoozeBelgium The slow revenge of unforgiving LawAnd the deep need of universal painAnd hard sacrifice and tragic consequenceOut of a Timeless barrier she must break,Penetrate with her thinking depths the Void’s monstrous hush,Look into the lonely eyes of immortal Death.— From Shri Aurobindo’s “Savitri” “What do you mean by ‘immortal death’?” a friend…
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Rethinking the knowledge of terminal illness: Is it a quality of life issue?
James B. RickertBloomington, Indiana, United States I found myself sitting again with an oncologist waiting to hear the results of treatment. I felt calmer this time because my friend, who was being evaluated for recurrent ovarian cancer, had requested that I come, but I still had a pit in my stomach. We had driven down…
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My father’s glasses
Geoff KronikBrookline, Massachusetts, United States I took them with me when I left the hospital that day, but five years later, I still have not put them on. Holding the glasses starts a movie in my memory, a biography of my father, but if I imagine wearing them a stranger appears on the screen. That…
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Is there a good death?
Frank Gonzalez-CrussiChicago, Illinois, United States Is there a good death? I contend that there is no answer to this question. There is indeed a rare species of questions that are unanswerable, and this is one of them. Those who have escaped from a near-fatal accident, or recovered from a serious illness, or somehow realized that…
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Dr. Gianakos, I think he’s awake now
Dean GianakosVirginia, USA It’s 2 am, and I’m on the phone with my first-year resident, Sherry. “Dr. Gianakos, I have one of your patients here in the emergency room, Jack Jones. As you know, Mr. Jones is a 72-year-old man with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He came in tonight complaining of increasing shortness of…
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Anticipatory grieving
Constance E. PutnamConcord, Massachusetts, United States When my father was making his slow decline into the grip of Parkinson’s disease, I found it easy (embarrassingly so, in retrospect) to criticize my mother for what I confidently labeled her unnecessarily grim view of the situation. She always seemed to me to be looking ahead to how…
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Living well before we die
Caroline WellberyWashington DC, United States Imagine having a passion for dying. Imagine 1,500 doctors and nurses at their annual meeting, gathering to support each other in that passion. These men and women are America’s hospice workers, and their conference is sponsored by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM). In the hotel elevator,…
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Teaching death
Boris VeysmanNew Jersey, Piscataway, United States This story “Teaching Death” by Boris D. Veysman was originally published in Academic Medicine, 2005 Mar; Volume80(3):290.© 2005 Association of the American Medical Colleges Publication. “God! You chose me to watch over the life and death of your creatures. I now turn to my calling.”—The Maimonides Prayer1 Another day…