If you have been fortunate enough to live with a pet you consider part of your healthcare team, you know already the gifts that little...

My son made his first hospice visit when he was eighteen months old. One day, I mentioned to Lois, the elderly woman I was visiting,...

My first hospice patient was not a hospice patient. And, as it turns out, I may not have been supporting her as much as she was...

My patient was an elderly man, Hank, who had been living with his son, Steve, for years. They were very close, and Steve was a...

“I wonder what she feels like in that healthy body?” I remember one of the earliest days after I received my diagnosis. I moved as...

“Please don’t mention the word ‘hospice’ to my mother. We don’t want her to know Dad is dying.” I hear this from a son, concerned about...

“I respect you too much to pity you.” I paused when I heard these words, my hiking boot poised mid-air in search of a ledge on which to...

Nineteen years ago, I quickly became friends with another young mother. We belonged to the same church, and normally we might not have...

I turned my head as the door to my hospital room opened. In walked a very young intern. He barely looked up from my chart as he said,...

Each time I sit down to do Passings work -- to write a blog or answer an email, to engage in a spiritual companioning session or to...

“Stand up. Look around at everyone in this room,” he said before pausing to allow us to follow his instructions. The 200 or so...

The world is safe. The world is orderly. I am a worthy person. You may have grown up with any or all of the above assumptions. Many of...

On May 25, my family and I moved into a new home in a new town. Changing homes during the Covid 19 pandemic required an immense amount...

He called for Mama. His own mother, Larcenia Floyd, had died two years before and was unable to come to him. Even if she were still...

As I ponder what “home” means to me, I keep returning to two books my children and I treasure. We read these hundreds of times during...

“I am from clothespins, From Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride” The first time I read these lines, I immediately began to feel them in my...

Saul Ebema lost his parents and family home to unimaginable violence when he was just a boy. He then lived in a refugee camp, on the...

On my way out of town for the week, I visit Susie in her home. She is actively dying, so I know that this will likely be the last time I...

I don’t know how to do this. I repeated this phrase over and over again as I lay in my hospital bed. Recently diagnosed with a rare...

I spent the better part of three decades not living in my body. For thirty years, my physical form served mostly as either a container...