When I was younger I learned the hard way that you should always treasure the people you love because you never know when your or their last day might be. My day was when I found out that my dad...
I was first drawn to hospice work because of my love for elders. My thought has always been that everyone has a story. Everyone wants to be validated, recognized that their life had meaning, that they overcame struggles, that they...
In my senior year of high school, I was traveling to California on vacation with my family when I received word that my best friend and his family had been killed in a car accident. I remember sadness overwhelming me...
Ellie was the eldest out of my two grandmothers at the age of 88. I was her only grandson, as well as her only grandchild who lived near her. She lived 5 minutes away from me so I was able...
Tomato soup, something I would go to on a cold winter day. I would depend on it to make me feel warm. When I add some cheddar goldfish in it gives the thought of something else there. When I grab...
December 5, 2011 8:40-9:50 am Eight years ago, at this exact time, my mother died. Before she died, she was in and out of the emergency room and intensive care repeatedly over the course of several months. During one of...
A series of tragedies during his youth left Gregory Orr confused and disillusioned. Now, the University of Virginia professor believes poetry – and the making of poems – has helped him live and heal.
As a child Deirdre Sullivan’s father told her to always pay her respects at funerals. Now, the Brooklyn attorney believes those simple acts of human kindness are as important as the grand heroic gestures.
On Christmas Day 2012, for reasons that cannot be explained by eyewitnesses or a review of her phone records, my 20-year-old daughter, Annalee, lost control of her car and drove into the path of an on-coming vehicle. On December 27...
