Category Archives: end of life care

“IF I SHOULD DIE BEFORE I WAKE”

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Amy Getter

“If I should die before I wake….” A child’s prayer my little sister and I sometimes spoke together at bedtime, not totally aware of what we were saying, I think, or we would have kept our eyes open and not slept a … Continue reading →

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TAKEN BY SURPRISE

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Amy Getter

“Dying is a lot like birthing, even though you expect it; you are still taken by surprise.” I returned from a brief vacation, and as is the case with hospice nurses everywhere I suspect, I looked at my work emails very late … Continue reading →

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GOBLINS AND WITCHES

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Amy Getter

“Tis a fearful thing, To love what death can touch”                                                               … Continue reading →

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THE FACE OF DYING

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Amy Getter

Marge lay dying in her bed while her daughter waited for the end.  Her face had slowly shrunken in over the last few days, looking thinner and paler and what could only be described as a shadow of her previously rosy … Continue reading →

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THE PEACE PROJECT

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Amy Getter

Some things really “level the playing field”. Dementia is one of those things.  The wandering thoughts of the brilliant become as uninspired as those of the dullest.  A man who advised United States’ presidents and developed national policy lays in his bed at the end … Continue reading →

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TEA AND PIG’S FEET

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Amy Getter

Pig’s feet, I think to myself, while I accept the plate of aspic offered- one of the joys of home nursing: accepting hospitality graciously!  I have had tea, coffee, cookies, seaweed and many other morsels, but pig’s feet- this is a first!  Thank … Continue reading →

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THE HEART STEALERS

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Amy Getter

I ducked my head under a canopy of gnarled and overloaded candy-pink rhododendron branches as I came up the sagging steps to the front door and rang the bell.  I waited. After a bit, an elderly woman answered, breathless and slightly flustered from … Continue reading →

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WOLVES AND WOUNDS

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Amy Getter

This past week, not far from where I live, someone in a fit of rage killed a number of people he didn’t even know.  An enraged daughter called her mother’s physician because the hospice nurse (me) wouldn’t make her mother comply with a specific … Continue reading →

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REGRETS

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Amy Getter

Is it actually possible to live a life without regret? I like to think so: at least to have only minor, insignificant regret. I watched Sally dying slowly, with her daughter providing most of her care as her needs increased incrementally over many … Continue reading →

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BEACH TREASURE

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Amy Getter

For me,there is nothing as precious as the sound of women laughing and crying together: the voices of my childhood. All the years growing up in a household of mostly women, the occasional squabbles or petty annoyances were always washed away in the … Continue reading →

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