I can’t even count how many days I have forgotten to eat, or to use a restroom or check the mirror to make sure I am still somewhat intac...

I have always been attracted to hummingbirds and dragonflies. Someone once told me that if you see a hummingbird soon after someone has d...

A few days ago I was at a facility seeing a patient. I got off the elevator heading toward the memory care unit and noticed a familiar fa...

The only real certainty about death is that we are all going to die. We are certain of that. But how and when we die is a question no one...

In one week I could sit with ten different people who are about to or will have lost someone they love. I am witness to the dying process...

By the time someone comes to us, they have lived their entire lives; we come in at the very end and only get a snapshot. We hear a lifeti...

I spend a lot of time talking about the beautiful side of death. Working in hospice has allowed me an opportunity to see death in a way t...

When I applied to nursing school, it was with my full intention to become a hospice nurse; I never entertained anything else. I knew with...

One of the things I continue to learn about life through death is that it is not about me. Despite what I may know, sometimes I need to b...

I have said this before… but people have a tendency not to ask me how my day was because they are afraid that I am going to tell them. In...

I went to dinner recently and I had to walk two blocks to get to the restaurant. It was really cold and pouring down rain and I forgot to...

When you work in hospice, you are constantly reminded of what it is like to lose someone you love. I have had almost 5 years to process t...

For the past few months, when appropriate, I have asked some of my patients what it feels like to die. My reason for this is because I wa...

After someone takes their last breath, I stay with the family and I provide comfort, support and active listening. I have a number of tas...

Being present is not something that just magically happens because someone suggests you do it, and in my opinion, it is not something we ...

Very rarely do I actually take a lunch break when I am working, even less often do I go inside somewhere and sit down. But on one random ...

When you or someone you love begins hospice care, it comes with a team of amazing humans who provide comfort and support at the end of li...

If I could have my choice, I would have a death that was entirely comforted by compassionate and loving tactile stimuli, but the truth is...

Awhile back I received a call from the daughter of a patient who had passed away. She had spent the past two years providing the most won...

I was having a conversation with a patient the other day about the things she wished she had done before she got sick. She talked about t...