A friend asked me recently, “how can you do that work when you have so many people die?”
She is correct; my team and I regularly spend our workdays with folks who are living through their final season of life. And we often remain in their lives until they breathe their last. Since December 1 of 2020, four of the people we have cared for have died.
There is sadness and heaviness that comes with this experience to be sure. The finality of one day caring for a person and the next day not caring for them causes us to feel a gap, a change. The reality of growing to know them, growing to love them, and caring for them as they become less able, more vulnerable, and more in need is a process that touches our minds and our hearts.
Everyone on our team has their own experience of grief as we care for our clients through this end-of-life process. For some of us, this touches cords of history with our own previous encounters with death and grief. It often reminds us of our mortality and gives us pause to consider the richness in life.
But there is a great deal of meaning in this work, knowing that we get to help people finish well. We help them continue to experience comfort, joy, value, and dignity as we care for them until they breathe their last. We are able to be with their loved ones through the process, and many have come to count on us for our presence, comfort, counsel, and guidance.
Easy? No way. But meaningful and an honor? Absolutely.
So, yes, we deal with people dying pretty often. But each time, we know we have helped the end-of-life process be a season that included good…for the person walking into end-of-life, and for those they love. And that is enough to keep us on the journey.
Touched. Moved. Grateful.
Jill
©Jill Couch
