I am in the middle of a class on End of Life Issues taught at Blue Mound UMC here in Denton. This week we had Rodney Bolejack from American Hospice as our speaker. As a hospice chaplain, he sees lots of families with someone at the end of life as we know it. Here are some of the take-aways from the class tonight. They are part Bolejack and part Taylor.
Dr. Bolejack ended his slides with this 15th century definition of medical care: To cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always.
- Just as it takes a village to raise and child, it should take a village to help someone die.
- Dying is hard work. We need to help in the ways the loved one needs us to.
- Meaning in life is want we make of it
- We all have parts of our lives no disease can take away.
- Grieving people do not needed fixed, they need help to grieve; it can be hard work
- Hospice is a special branch of medicine in the same way pediatrics is a special branch, Both deal with transitions in life.
- Dignity and quality of life are similar at both ends of life. We can't care for all our own needs, but loved ones can.
- We need to equip people with the tools to face death gracefully while they are still full of life.
- The way we grieve has a lot to do with how the one we are grieving accepted the end of life.
Dr. Bolejack ended his slides with this 15th century definition of medical care: To cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always.
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