Editor’s Note: Information, including last names, has been intentionally omitted because of the medically sensitive nature of this story.
By ANDY CASTILLO
Recorder Staff
In her poem “Because I could not stop for Death,” 19th century Amherst poet Emily Dickinson describes death as a gentleman carriage driver who “knew no haste” and “kindly stopped for me.” Together, they drive off slowly, “We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain — We passed the Setting Sun.”
The ride is so gentle it’s not until the last line the poet “first surmised the Horses’ Heads Were toward Eternity.”
Dickinson understood and accepted human mortality; and her peaceful, slow journey past the red sun beautifully captures the mission of Greenfield-based Hospice of Franklin County, which offers compassionate end of life care for those diagnosed with terminal illnesses.
“I can’t say enough about normalizing this experience that we’re all going to have at some point,” said Executive Director Terry Gaberson. “A main focus of hospice is to celebrate life. But it’s not a curative model, it’s a supportive health care model.”
That supportive focus is put into practice by a team of health care professionals and 85 trained volunteers, including Army veteran Ted Moser, who now works in massage, and retired elementary school teacher Joan Patterson.
“It’s become a necessity in our culture today so people don’t have to die alone either at home or in a facility,” Moser said, seated at a table inside Charlene Manor Extended Care Facility beside Patterson and hospice care recipient Gloria, who’s been diagnosed with a terminal heart condition.
Gloria, who worked at the Millers Falls Paper Mill for 30 years, is a great-grandmother in her late 80s. She’s also a descriptive storyteller with a sweet smile who will “never forget that day I walked into Fenway for the first time.”
“I love coming to visit Gloria,” said Patterson, who’s volunteered in hospice care for nearly a decade. “She has wonderful stories about when she was young. My visits with her are very uplifting. We usually spend about an hour together. Sometimes, her son comes at the end of our visits.”
“You have your family and friends, who visit and call — it’s nice to (also) have people, who are total strangers, who care enough to give up their time and visit,” she said about Patterson and Moser, lying on a reclined bed covered in a blue blanket. She noted, “I thoroughly enjoy my great grandchildren coming. They flop all over the bed and give me hugs and kisses.”
Gloria’s late husband, Jim, who served as a B-25 flight engineer in WWII, was also in the Colrain Road home and enjoyed visits from Hospice of Franklin County volunteers.
When Jim first came to the home, Moser framed a large picture of the view from their Erving home’s back porch and hung it on the wall in front of their beds. The picture is a window to a favorite spot where they often sat together in younger years.
“They spent a lot of time out there — that was their favorite place. When they both came into the facility, that was one of the things they missed,” Moser said.
“It was just a perfect place for us to be,” Gloria reminisced. “It took away the feeling of being in the house, closed in. We would go out there with all the windows, looking out at our yard and our neighbor’s house and the highway; we never had that feeling of being alone.”
When Jim passed away, the gesture gained a deeper significance. While remembering her late husband, Gloria teared up. The picture, she said, “meant an awful lot, because we were married for 70 years. When I lost him, I lost the love of my life.”
Moser, originally from North Carolina, was influenced to volunteer by another picture: an 1851 painting of George Washington’s death by Artist Junius Brutus Stearns.
“I can still remember as a child seeing a picture in a history book of George Washington dying with his family surrounding him,” Moser said, “but that seems so far removed from our culture today. My own grandparents did not die in their home — they died in a hospital or another facility.”
“I personally like the idea of being part of that community that serves everyone at the end of their life, so they don’t have to die alone,” he continued.
“It’s sad — but there’s also a lot of laughter and life review. That’s a huge role of volunteers; to show up and be with them,” said Volunteer Coordinator Jayne Allen.
Hospice care volunteers are like that kindly driver in Dickinson’s poem — gently walking side-by-side toward the setting sun, providing care needs as basic as listening to stories, as necessary as hanging pictures.
You can reach Andy Castillo
at: acastillo@recorder.com or
413-772-0261, ext. 263. On Twitter:
@AndyCCastillo