To the editor,
When I was the director of the Koochiching Volunteer Hospice, I read a book that said that “a hospice volunteer is a humble creature, having no professional status among hospice colleagues. However, since volunteers are not encumbered by an array of specialized tasks to complete during the course of a visit, perhaps this open-ended identity and flexibility, coupled with extended time periods spent with the patient, help lay the foundation for companionship.”
Today, I am a volunteer for North Star Hospice and what I have learned over the may years I have spent sitting with the dying is that it is never too late to begin a friendship. These friendships are new and often short-lived... for the dying person it can be comforting to have a companion with whom they don’t have baggage or a history. A volunteer is able to accept the person where they are in the moment and bring to the situation, the ability to attend to the dying in a way that close friends and family may have trouble doing as they have their own needs and issues related to their grief.
I believe that volunteers provide not only respite for the caregivers of the dying but respite for the patient too... time away from his/her inner circle of caregivers, family and friends. I think that statement is an interesting way to look at volunteers in the role of the dying... respite for the family and the patient.
Being a volunteer for North Star Hospice offers me the opportunity to make new friendships... I still have visits with remaining family members years after their loved one has died.
Our volunteer training is excellent and open to anyone interested — male, female, single people, husbands and wives — anyone who wants to give back to their community while making new and impactful friendships.
Gale Gagnier
International Falls, MN
