Caldwell Hospice and Palliative Care attracts amazing people. Patients and families praise the Hospice staff and volunteers who care for them. When asked why they’re working with Hospice, staff and volunteers often cite the emotional gifts they receive from patients and families. It’s all quite circular and very authentic. Everyone involved receives blessings in what may appear, at first glance, to be the least likely circumstances. Grief and pain can be sad and sometimes solitary experiences, but they don’t have to be. We can learn from one family of Hospice volunteers, two sisters and a brother, all of whom became Hospice volunteers and certified nursing assistants, after sharing the care-giving responsibilities for their mother among themselves and with Hospice.

Betty Klutz, Bennie Kincaid, and Larry Estes alternated caring for their mother during her declining health, at their respective homes. After she spent two weeks in Hospice’s patient care unit, they continued caring for her, even while all of them found time to enroll in the volunteer program. Her second stay at Hospice was 10 days in duration before she died. After her death, the three siblings decided to enroll in CCC&TI’s Certified Nursing Assistant program. All three continue to volunteer at Hospice, and all three work part-time at Hospice as CNAs.

Betty, Bennie, and Larry like to help others, and they identify themselves as caregivers. They speak with one voice. Larry “enjoys” working with Hospice patients, naming care-giving the “vocation God was calling me into.” Betty says volunteers can help by “just holding patients’ hands.” Bennie describes her role as “my calling, too,” noting that she works at Hospice on weekends, as needed. Betty looked after her husband who spent six years in a rest home, and now she works every other weekend in the patient care unit, as well as volunteering. Larry cared for his wife, who was a cancer patient, and now he cares for his three grandchildren during the day. At night, he fulfills his volunteer and CNA duties, and he works in the volunteer orientation program. He says, “We fell in love with Hospice.”

Their advice to people who might want to become Hospice volunteers comes from the heart. Larry says that, if people “feel like that’s what God put on their mind, they shouldn’t be afraid.” The staff will train and help them overcome their fears. They can always ask for help, and they will become more confident. Betty says people should try it and see; they’ll get such a feeling of helping, and there are so many ways they can help. According to Larry, it could be as simple as going to the grocery store or taking a patient to the doctor.

Bennie advises, “Go with your feelings. You can do it if this is what God wants you to do. Once you get started, you don’t think about yourself; you think about what you do for others.” Larry assures people that they will find satisfaction in volunteering for Hospice. This family of volunteers leads the way! (published in spring 2005 Kirkwood Carelines)