Due to bad winter storms and the facility being shut down to visitors due to illness, James and I haven’t been to visit our hospice patient in four weeks. She was so happy to see James. She said she had been missing him but knew that we couldn’t come in the bad weather.
The thing about visiting with hospice patients… since I visit just once a week, I often see dramatic changes. Today, since we hadn’t visited in a month, I knew things would be very different. Although her face still lit up when she saw James come through the door, she was lying in bed, visibly in pain. She told us she had been having a rough time. She shrugged, saying, This is it, nothing I can do about it.
So she could be close to James and pet him, I set a chair next to her bed where he sat with his head resting on the bed rail. She smiled and pet his head. A peaceful, happy time for her. We had to leave when the aid came in to change and reposition her – something they now have to do regularly. She said good-bye, petting James, all the while smiling.
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