I visited Angola State Prison in Louisiana last month and I have to say it was one of the most interesting days I’ve ever experienced. I want to write about the hospice they run there, but before I do, let me tell you about this most interesting place. First of all, you have to know…
Category Archives: Death
Guns, Germs, and Steel
If you are like me you make sure the next book you pick up is worth your time reading it. I’ve found that searching the best-seller Kindle lists is helpful for finding worthy texts. That is how I came across Jared Diamond’s, “Guns, Germs and Steel,” a 1997 Pulitzer Prize winner. Diamond is a University…
Bonhoeffer
Wouldn’t it have been great if Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his anti-Nazi organizers had successfully assassinated Hitler? I would bet most people would agree. Eric Metaxas’ “Bonhoeffer” is the first comprehensive biography on the young theologian’s life, which was cut short by Hitler’s hangmen just two weeks before the allies entered and freed German captives. In…
Something new, and old
It has been almost two months since I last posted. After writing about 100 blogs over a three-year span, I believe I had run out of things to say, and I didn’t want to keep re-writing the same stories and themes. Frankly, I’m surprised that anyone would want to read this blog . . ….
No regrets
A friend of mine from college posted on his Facebook page a few thoughts about regrets. Here they are: “I always hear people say, “I live my life with no regrets” or “I have no regrets in life.” Really?! Not one. I have tons. Practically every conversation I have, I later think, “why did I…
Love your neighbor
Jesus’ words to us came to mind when I first heard about one of our patients who had recently come on our hospice service. Her neighbors called us asking for help in taking care of her. We discovered that the neighbors had made a promise to the woman’s late husband, a wonderful guy, beloved by…
He can’t take His eyes off us
I was reading a book about a man who was the primary caretaker for his father. His dad had been a robust, hard-working man his whole life, and cancer had reduced his physical body to a bed-bound status, hardly able to feed himself. Each night, the exhausted son would feed his dad and then massage…
The three of us
They grew up in a little town south of Midlothian, Texas, braving the depression but not knowing there was anything better. Their grandfather who had been a Civil War soldier inherited some land there and named the town after his wife. They are all three still living here just outside of Fort Worth. The “baby”…
Man Knows Not His Time
We often receive requests from family members and hospice patients to know how much longer they have to live. My response is always the same, that only the Giver of life knows when it will be taken away. Although our hospice patient population is mostly elderly, our census has been peppered with more than the…
Non-anonymity
The Texas Hospice team in San Antonio received a late afternoon call to help a hospitalized woman dying of pancreatic cancer. Her last wish was to die at home, comfortably. Within a couple of hours, she was on her way home and one of our nurses delivered just enough morphine to keep her comfortable. She…
