Tag Archives: dying; bedside vigil; hospice

WE MIGHT NOT BE SO SURE…

Posted on October 17, 2022 by Amy Getter

I find myself in another paradoxical debate.  I have made my best attempt to find adequate palliative care research being done on managing end-of-life secretions (“the death rattle” people often refer to), and I cannot say I have read sufficient … Continue reading →

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THE ENCHANTED ONES

Posted on January 22, 2015 by Amy Getter

My mother always said that the animals were enchanted, and in another life they will be able to tell us, the humans, all the things that they know, though we give them so little credit. I hear people say, “Animals … Continue reading →

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DYING GRACEFULLY

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Amy Getter

I read the quote on my candle that says: “Grace. How you climb up the mountain is just as important as how you get down the mountain, and, so it is with life, which for many of us becomes one … Continue reading →

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THE LOVE CALL

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Amy Getter

That unmistakable “AAAAAAAmmmyyyyyy” heard down the street from my childhood home was my mother’s voice.  None of my friends’ moms had an operatic singing voice that floated throughout the neighborhood calling the other children home for dinner.  Just mine.  We … 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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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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A MONSTER IN THE CLOSET

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Amy Getter

Mary and I sat quietly together, talking about her dying.  Light increases her headaches, so she lays in a dark room most of the day.  She is rather pragmatic, facing her death many years before she ever expected with frequent stark remarks … Continue reading →

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NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Amy Getter

A man lay dying in his living room. His spouse of 30 years was the other sole occupant of an upstairs apartment.  She was exhausted and I asked about sharing the care giving with the young adult children that lived … Continue reading →

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WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW, IS LOVE…

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Amy Getter

At times, I am caught off guard by a word or a gesture.  Today, a group of numbers stunned me for a long moment.  I cradled Sara’s arm while I took her blood pressure, and saw the blue-black tattoo along … Continue reading →

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A THIN PLACE

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Amy Getter

 In the Celtic tradition, a thin place is the meeting of something spiritual with our earthly time, a glimpse of the divine…Heaven and earth kiss each other.  Where two worlds intermingle, something happens; inexplicable, sacred and people describe a sense … Continue reading →

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