 Cold
Hands….Warm Hearts
Jean Owens
11th Hour Hospice Volunteer
When I volunteered to
be in the 11th hour
program at Hospice, I was both delighted and
apprehensive.
I didn’t know if I could do
anything to be of help to people on their final
path. Little did I know that I would be the one
on the receiving end.
I was asked to
relieve a caregiver a couple of hours each morning and a couple of hours each
evening. I was asked to sit with a lady who had lost her sight and was very
afraid to be alone. Each time that I was with her and held her hands, they
would be ice cold. Her room always had the lights on with music playing or the
television would be on.
This particular
morning, nothing was on. The room was bathed in a soft light and there was a
peaceful stillness. As I took hold of her hands, I experienced a coldness that
I had never felt before. At first, I was very frightened. But as I sat with
her and held her, I realized that I was being given a gift. Death is part of
the life process and I let it come into me. As I
accepted this, I
could feel her releasing the fear of dying. I held her hands for about two
hours until her hands were finally warm. She told me that she was no longer
afraid.
When this brave
lady left this human world, she did so in her own time frame, with her
caregiver in her room and she was unafraid.
I had spent
approximately 30 hours with this wonderful lady. We had very little
conversation, but I felt a profound love that will always be with me.
I give thanks to
Hospice and the 11th hour program for the gift that I received and hopefully
can give back
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