Tag: Spring 2011
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Ice cream or Mozart?
Leon Morgenstern Los Angeles, California, United States How would I answer a question if the quality of my life depended on the answer? A recent article about end-of-life decisions1 discussed how a worried daughter had sprung the following questions as her father was about to undergo a very risky operation: how much pain he…
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Latricia
Kristin Adams Forner Ohio, USA We were running. The stampede of our wooden clogs beat the linoleum that lined the hallway from the operating rooms to the intensive care units. The metal contents of our pockets clanged each time our feet hit the ground. Latricia’s monitors relentlessly announced the status of her dying organs,…
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The spiritual dimension of facilitating advance directives planning: the congregational setting as a vital resource
Kathleen Blanchfield Romeoville, 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…
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Immortal death: before and after
Karen De Looze Belgium The slow revenge of unforgiving Law And the deep need of universal pain And hard sacrifice and tragic consequence Out 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” …
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Rethinking the knowledge of terminal illness: Is it a quality of life issue?
James B. Rickert Bloomington, 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…
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My father’s glasses
Geoff Kronik Brookline, 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…
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Is there a good death?
Frank Gonzalez-Crussi Chicago, Illinois, United States Contemplation study Photography by Jenny Wright 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…
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Dr. Gianakos, I think he’s awake now
Dean Gianakos Virginia, 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…
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Anticipatory grieving
Constance E. Putnam Concord, Massachusetts, United States Anne Todd Hochberg Chromogenic print 6”x 9” 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…