Hospice

Why Care for Your Own Dying Loved One?

(Note: The following suggestions are based on the assumption that all are agreed that your loved one will die at home in your care. Also, the authors have chosen to use the pronoun “him” instead of “him/her”. All content refers to both men & women)

When Bob and I first started caring for the terminally ill in our home sixteen years ago, my mother asked me if I was sure I wanted to care for people who were going to die in our home. Being a concerned mother, she thought the work might get me depressed.

My answer to her was that God had called us to do this particular type of care giving and where He sends you, He gives you the grace to carry it out and joyfully so! This remains true all of these years later. We truly enjoy every facet of our work and ministry to the patients we care for and their families.

There is nothing compared to being privileged enough to share the last few days of a person’s life. We derive such satisfaction from knowing that we have made a difference in their family’s lives also. When we wake up each day, we look forward to what the new day holds for us and when we close our eyes at night, after a long days’ work, we have a Godly pride in what we accomplished and the lives we touched that day.

Since the tragedy occurred when the trade centers were destroyed in 2001, Americans have been returning to patriotism, home and hearth in most every area of their lives. We are pleased to see that an increased respect for our elderly is one of these areas.

For five decades, we as a country gradually moved away from caring for our own dying at home. We have been inundated with modern technology and just haven’t even considered much of anything else but to make money and buy things. Relationships with our youth, elderly, sickly and in many cases even our own marriages have been last on our list of priorities. The result? The highest divorce rate, teenage suicide, pregnancy and runaways in history.

The very foundation of our country was built on biblical principals, one of them being that if you honor your mother and father, things will go well for you and you shall live long upon the earth. The elderly are living longer because of the new technology and they honored and revered the wisdom of their parents. The youth are dying younger because they don’t. But the good news is that we woke up and repented.

Every time you turn on the news you hear about another group which has been formed to reinstate the morals our great country was built on. Old Glory is flying once again and we have taken our country back.

Most people just don’t know how to care for their dying loved ones at home or where to look for help. Because you need a degree for most any job these days, they are under the mistaken idea that in order for them to do hospice care at home that they need to be qualified. The idea doesn’t even enter their mind because subconsciously they fear they might make a mistake and that terminal care should be performed by doctors, nurses and hospitals.

Don’t get me wrong. We appreciate the medical professionals who specialize in the dying process. I’m just saying that there is more than one way to help your terminally ill loved one.

Our sole purpose in providing this information, is to teach families who want to be with their loved ones at home for their last days on earth, as opposed to a more institutional setting, how to provide that care and how to do it exceptionally.

We can’t blow the proverbial horn loud enough for the many hospice agencies that have stepped up to the plate over the past fifty years. They excel in compassion, knowledge, patience and work hand–in–hand with the family to provide a pain and symptom free climate at home for the dying.

As we get up in age and our needs change and out of necessity, our residences must change too. The trend until recently has been:

From living at home
To a small apartment
To an independent retirement community
To an independent living facility
To an assisted living facility
To a family member’s home
To a nursing home or
A personal care home
To the hospital
To the cemetery

Our goal in providing the information on these website pages, is to show the family how to take care of their own relatives at home when they decide that this is the route they want to take. If we can eliminate the fear of inadequacy that comes with terminal care, then we have met our goal!

We aren’t saying this will be easy and that it’s for everyone but if you want to learn how to care for your loved one throughout the dying process, you are in the right place!

Welcome to the rewarding world of terminal homecare!