Grace Hospice is committed to providing end of life services to our patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients can still be admitted to our hospice services either in-person or via telehealth. Grace Hospice is following CDC infection control guidelines for personal protective equipment when conducting patient visits. Grace Hospice is also working with individual facilities to determine which hospice visits are conducted in person and which visits are conducted via telehealth. Grace Hospice has full telehealth capabilities to integrate all disciplines as directed. If you have any questions about how hospice care is provided during this time, please call our main office at 612-238-0034.
by Chaplain Bonnie Nash:
Thirty-eight years ago in the middle of February, Frances and I were sitting on top of a lush green hill overlooking the Buddhist monastery of Lantau Island off the coast of Hong Kong. I was a teacher in Hong Kong at the time and Frances was the 12 year old daughter of a Swiss couple who were my friends. That day her parents had not wanted to hike up the hill, so Frances and I took off and up we went for a better view of our beautiful surroundings. I loved being with Frances. In my opinion, she was a little mystic who knew how to be still in the majesty of nature. She loved pink flowers and bunnies and could easily paint them.
As we quietly sat there, Frances said to me, “When Buddhists die, do they go to heaven?” Treasuring her thoughts, I asked, “What do you think, Frances?” Her reply, “I think they do. God loves all people.” Two weeks later on February 28, 1981, I received the worst phone call of my life. It was Frances’ mother. She was sobbing uncontrollably. “Frances just died,” she cried. My initial response was disbelief and shock. Unfortunately, unbeknown to them, a faulty hot water heater had leaked carbon monoxide into the bathroom when Frances was taking a bath.
For a long time afterward, I felt as if I were living in a nightmare of sadness, anxiety, and depression. And I was bewildered about God? Why would God allow such a perfect child to die? Later, when I read A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis, I felt an odd comfort in knowing someone else had experienced similar feelings in grief. After his wife died, Lewis described God this way, “Go to Him when your need is desperate…and what do you find? A door slammed in your face…After that, silence.”
I went to seminary because of Frances. I was on a quest to discover who God really is. I studied the phenomena of loss and grief because of Frances. And because of Frances, I was reminded that “God loves all people” especially, I might add, people who are grieving. In hospice, almost daily, I am reminded that even tears can reflect the light which comes through the open door of heaven. Still, every February 28, my heart aches from missing a little girl who was such a precious gift to this world.
Bonnie Nash is a chaplain with Grace Hospice, a faith-based nonprofit agency.
As a Massage Therapist for patients at the end of life, it is my goal to promote comfort and a sense of well-being through gentle touch. According to the American Massage Therapy Association; research shows that massage therapy provides clinical benefits to hospice patients, such as decreased pain and improved quality of life. I have been in the field for almost 30 years and I knew how beneficial massage therapy can be. But what I didn’t expect when I started my work as a Hospice Massage Therapist, is how much I would get back from those I came to serve. Let me explain…
From the moment I enter their world time slows down, what a gift. No one is in a hurry or stressed by time. I feel seen in a way that most of us don’t experience very often in our harried busy lives. We chat about the weather and other small matters, but it feels like a deeper conversation. Sometimes, I will just sit in silence with a patient, either because they cannot speak or by their choice. And I’ve learned that so much can be said in total silence. Many of my patients are elderly and have to rely on others to meet their most basic needs. They have shown me what it means to be vulnerable, to need and ask for help, and most often they do it so gracefully. At this stage in life, they have often endured a lot of loss. Everything from the loss of a job title and the loss of their home, to the loss of the ability to walk and sometimes talk. With such courage and strength, they show me how to just be. Spending time with them reminds me what really matters and gives perspective to my life. I witness all the facets of what it is to be human. Sometimes that means sitting with someone who is in pain, angry or afraid.
I’ve come to see these fragile emotions as beautiful expressions of our human experience, and it is an honor to hold space for whatever arises. And at the end of my visits there is eye contact and a sincere thank you, please come again, and I leave fuller than when I arrived. You see we shared an authentic human connection. And that connection is the greatest gift we can give or receive. This is the gift I receive from my patients every day.
Julie Monette
Grace Hospice Massage Therapist
by Sarah Van Winkle:
If you have experienced the loss of a loved one, you know that the emotions we experience in grief are complicated. When I lost my dad a few years ago, I knew the pain of losing him would affect me for a lifetime. I also realized the beautiful memories of his unconditional love for me would soften the pain and help me to continue to live life in a way that would make him proud. Ultimately, in grief, I learned how blessed I was in having had such a wonderful dad to know and to love with my whole heart, yet when it was his time to go to God, I also knew I had to let him go. Chaplain Bonnie has shared with me the works from the poet Mary Oliver. She shares the idea that it is important to look at the world and nature we live in to get an idea of who we are as humans; nature is central to her idea of God. I would like to share her poem that speaks to me:
“In Blackwater Woods”
Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars
of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,
the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders
of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is
nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have learned in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side
is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
It has been such a privilege for me to lead the extraordinary group of people who work for Grace Hospice serving our patients and families in the community. We are a faith based nonprofit hospice always trusting in God to hold us and strengthen us in times of grief.
Sarah Van Winkle is the executive director and president of Grace Hospice, a faith-based nonprofit agency. She has more than 35 years’ experience as an RN in public health, with extensive experience in hospice and palliative care.
by Sarah Van Winkle:
The concept of Hospice has been evolving in Europe since the 11th century. The first modern hospice care was created by Cicely Sounders in 1967. Dame Cicely Saunders was a British registered nurse whose is often thought of as the founder of the modern Hospice Movement. Her relationship with a dying Polish refuge helped solidify her ideas that terminally ill patients needed compassionate care to help address their fears and concerns as well as palliative comfort for physical symptoms. Her vision was brought to the United States and a grassroots movement began, faith based nonprofit organizations embraced the hospice movement. These organizations through donors and volunteers began to provide hospice care in the community providing spiritual, emotional and physical care to those at end of life. These services supported the wishes of our patients to die where they chose, generally not in cold sterile hospitals.
As the founder of Grace Hospice I was able to experience the pure grassroots movement and original vision of hospice care in the United States before Medicare made it a benefit. Because the grassroots movement was so well received and the outcomes were excellent Hospice became a Medicare benefit.
Medicare wanted to be sure the pure vision of hospice and the outstanding outcomes translated in the new benefit. In the grassroots hospice programs volunteers were vital to the comprehensive care of the patients in hospice, so it was written in the rules that hospice agencies had volunteers that provided at a minimum of 5% of direct patient care. In that same vein spiritual care was such an essential part of the care of the whole person, Medicare in its rules stated that a spiritual assessment be completed on every person. Specific rules were written on emotional support and nursing support mirroring the original hospice vision seen during the early years before Medicare. Grace Hospice models its program and cares to that of the original vision of the grassroots movement.
Through this Blog I hope to continue to share the vision of Hospice care and make you the readers ambassadors for hospice care, here are a few things to know:
- Hospice is a philosophy of care, not a place. It is something you do, not somewhere you go.
- Hospice looks at the total person, providing spiritual, emotional and physical care.
- Hospice is a team oriented approach tailored to each person’s individual needs and wishes.
- Hospice believes the quality of life to be as important as length of life.
- Hospice cares for not only the patient but the family/loved ones that surround them.
- Hospice Medicare benefit allows for patient/family choice, you have a choice on who provides your end of life care.
Sarah Van Winkle is the executive director and president of Grace Hospice, a faith-based nonprofit agency. She has more than 35 years experience as an RN in public health, with extensive experience in hospice and palliative care.
