Through the Eyes of a Volunteer

As a hospice volunteer I spend time with patients in their home or at the Kaplan Family Hospice Residence.  I have wonderful memories of patients and families that I helped along the way, and as a ten year volunteer there are many.  This is one that I remember and think about often.

At the Kaplan Residence, I was asked to take a patient out to the gazebo so she could have a cigarette.  I had read the social worker’s comments that this young lady was very sad and not very communitive. As I lit her cigarette, I tried small talk but got no response.

On the way back to her room I hummed a tune I thought she might know; she looked at me but never said a word.  The next week I was asked again to take her out, and on the way to the gazebo she asked about the song I was humming last week.  I sang it for her, and this time she smiled and told me that her father sang that song to her when she was a little girl. I was happy to have been able to bring a smile to her face.

The last time I got the chance to take her out, she asked if I knew the second verse of the song.  I did so I sang it to her. Her name was Linda and this was her song, the song her father used to sing to her as a little girl, and the song this hospice volunteer got to sing to her for the very last time.

                                                 “When I go to sleep
                                                   I never count sheep
                                                   I count all the charms about Linda”

Kevin Garvey
Hospice Volunteer