School: Swarthmore

I can’t go on. I’ll go on. I have been visiting June this past year. She is a sweetheart. She is very kind, very considerate, and an easy woman to talk to. When I first met June with Mary (our volunteer coordinator), I was nervous. Meeting a new person with fewer than 6 months to … Continue reading “I can’t go on. I’ll go on.”

I have been a hospice volunteer for about two semesters and I have gotten to know some of the most beautiful individuals. I have had the wonderful opportunity to make meaningful relationships with Mr. McBride, Anita, and Helena. Mr. McBride is an amazing human being who has lived with many decades of history. He is … Continue reading “Meaningful Relations”

I remember how nervous I felt before starting hospice volunteering because the concept of death was very frightening to me. During my senior year of high school, I lost my grandpa. Experiencing my first loss from someone that was so close to me was unbelievably hard. It made me question whether I could even go … Continue reading “My First Hospice Experience”

Watching my parents take care of my grandparents throughout the past years, I struggled when my parents would become frustrated and fed-up with the slowness and unresponsiveness of their own elderly parents. It was difficult to think that one day my own parents will need elderly assistance, and I will be the one to provide … Continue reading “Hospice Reflection Paper”

I started out sophomore year as the eager pre-med student ready to take on all the challenges that came with the workload. When given the opportunity to interact with real patients I was really excited. But I was also terrified. I did not know how I was going to deal with death. I have always … Continue reading “On Death and Dying: Thoughts of a 20-something-year-old on the life before the dying process”

For the past five months, I have been visiting a patient with mental retardation who has changed the way I think about aging and dementia. When I first met her, she greeted me with a huge smile and showed me her collection of coloring books. Her passion for coloring and her constant grin made her … Continue reading “Changing My Perspective on Death”

Becoming a hospice volunteer was one of the most impactful and important decisions I have ever made. The experience I had and the relationships I have been building in the past months have changed me and are continuing to influence my development as a student on the biomedical path and more importantly, as a person. … Continue reading “Lessons from being a Hospice volunteer”

When I first met Bob, I wondered how this was ever going to work. I had no way to communicate with him; any question I asked him would simply float around in his mind for a while, then leave just as quickly. In the first few weeks, much of the time we spent together was … Continue reading “Bob and Me”

One patient I visited was named Sarah, and she liked to talk with her hands. She was usually in the dining room, so I would kneel next to her while she sat at one of the tables. This was one of the few patients I visited who could still speak and make eye contact, and … Continue reading “Lessons from Hospice Care”

I was matched with a patient suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. She was not very verbal since our first meeting. I spent most of the time just sitting with her and holding her hand. I did not talk to her a lot since I found it to be very awkward to hold a one-way conversation—I am … Continue reading “Power of Voice”