{"id":1409,"date":"2020-04-08T13:00:02","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T17:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/?p=1409"},"modified":"2020-05-10T13:30:13","modified_gmt":"2020-05-10T17:30:13","slug":"colliding-worlds-a-connection-77-years-apart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/colliding-worlds-a-connection-77-years-apart\/","title":{"rendered":"Colliding Worlds: A Connection 77 Years Apart"},"content":{"rendered":"

The story of my relationship with Agnes<\/em> does not unravel as a movie plot with shocking turns, plentiful clich\u00e9s and joyous moments of great splendor. It was not a difficult connection but one that did require work, as there were times when I was unsure of what to say or whether my time spent with her was meaningful as a momentous cap to a long and impactful life. Agnes<\/em> is in hospice, meaning that her life is expected to come to an end soon, and my position as a volunteer is to peacefully coexist alongside her during her final days on earth. She is 97 years old and still coherent, still laughing, and has a better memory than most of my peers. Though Agnes<\/em> is bed-ridden and cannot move, I developed a strong relationship with her in her stuffy half-room, cut down the center by a frail curtain, by introducing her to my world as I delved deeper into hers.<\/p>\n

I recall my nerves prior to our first meeting, wondering if I had prepared enough for the visit and fearing that Agnes<\/em> would be uncomfortable with my presence. My fears were soon alleviated as I found her to be sweet, genuine, and humorous. I often asked her questions about her life, to which she responded with profound answers that displayed her miraculous sense of memory, but I also discovered that \u201cAgnes\u201d found great joy in asking about my life. She seemed to find solace in asking questions about college, classes, girls, and my family. A moment that I will carry for years to come was when I told Agnes<\/em> that my father had just left town on a business trip and a week later, upon entering for my visit, she asked if my father had arrived home safely. I knew at that time that her memory was particularly special for her age and through simple comments like this, I was able to connect to her warm heart and compassion.<\/p>\n

It comes as no surprise that the most effective doctors and healthcare workers can not only diagnose illnesses, but also are comfortable with establishing small connections with patients. A sense of raw human communication opens doors for patients to reveal potentially significant information about their livelihood, which may contribute to a more accurate diagnosis. Considering these two disciplines to hopefully become a proficient physician one day, it is comforting that hospice volunteering focuses solely on connection building, a skill which can never be too refined and will always hold importance. I found that each week that I returned to Agnes\u2019s<\/em> bedside, there was another welcoming level of familiarity compounding over time. I slowly found myself more open to talking about my life as she asked questions, a process which taught me what she found important at her age so that I could refine my own questions.<\/p>\n

Though my year was unfortunately cut short due to COVID-19, I think about Agnes<\/em> often and wonder about her perspectives on the state of the world. I know she has seen much and lived through many disasters and trying moments; I would have looked forward to hearing her intriguing opinions. Agnes<\/em> has opened my worldview by forcing me to think from multiple points of view at all times. She has helped me confirm that I will passionately continue my pursuit of becoming a physician, and I hope that in these few words I was able to capture the breathtaking young energy and spirit that I found in this old soul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The story of my relationship with Agnes does not unravel as a movie plot with shocking turns, plentiful clich\u00e9s and joyous moments of great splendor. It was not a difficult connection but one that did require work, as there were times when I was unsure of what to say or whether my time spent with … Continue reading “Colliding Worlds: A Connection 77 Years Apart”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"school":[14],"program_year":[31],"class_list":["post-1409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hospice","school-haverford","program_year-31"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1409"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1554,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409\/revisions\/1554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1409"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=1409"},{"taxonomy":"program_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_year?post=1409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}