Dying Declarations: Notes from a Hospice Volunteer

by David B. Resnik

“Death strips away all of the superficial and mundane details of living and leaves behind life’s bare essentials.”Death is inevitable in life. It knows no boundaries. It knows no skin color, no financial or social standing. It knows nothing but itself. The paradox of Dying Notes from a Hospice Volunteer is in its warm affirmation of life through the ’dying declarations’ of patients who are peering into the cold face of death. The author reveals personal experiences about life, death, and the courage to strip away the unimportant aspects of life to make way for a clearer understanding on just what is truly important. Simple, moving stories invigorate and spark insights-while discussing all aspects of hospice volunteering.“By facing death on a regular basis, one can no longer maintain a tight grip on the masks, games, and trivialities that one uses to hide from truth. The person who looks death in the eye becomes more honest, grateful, compassionate, and humble.” In Dying Notes from a Hospice Volunteer, the author shares his experiences and the lessons he learned from the dying while working as a hospice volunteer. The stories, rather than being sad and depressing, present the author’s hospice experience as being some of the most personally uplifting and enriching experiences of his life. In Dying Notes from a Hospice Volunteer you will about training for hospice work why hospice volunteers are at times more beneficial to the well-being of dying patients than family, clergy, or medical personnel the three basic tasks for a hospice volunteer how children and dogs can be beneficial for patients the impact that a dying patient can have on the life of a hospice volunteer words of wisdom about living life, directly from hospice patientsDying Notes from a Hospice Volunteer will inspire and enlighten hospice volunteers, nurses, physicians, clergy, social workers or anyone who works for hospice or provides end-of-life care.

87 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 13, 2005

Reviews

[Becca · Rating 2 out of 5]

The prose was a little bit tedious at times, like the author was trying to explain something to a small child. Some of the essays seemed to drag on without settling on any particular point. Overall, I found it to be a useful guide to the variety of experiences one might have in hospice volunteer work and the range of grief reactions exhibited by families.