A father and son could not find words to communicate their love for each other. The father, Bob, was dying. I had known him when his wife died eighteen months earlier. I remembered how reserved he was. It had been very hard to engage him in conversation. This had been the experience of other team members as well…

Don was dying from a cancer that was interfering with his ability to talk. He had been using a pad for writing. His wife, Carol, was still working. His life had been filled with a successful career: he was a big boat sailor, he played in a band, and he had two lovely adult children. They had been coping very well with this slow loss of control…

It was a weekend, and I was the only nonmedical hospice team member available. There had been a call about a patient who was in a nursing home, raging uncontrollably, who had pushed away anyone who tried to help. I thought to myself, This sounds like spiritual pain. I volunteered to go see him…

Several nurses and aides from the hospice house came up to me to say that they were concerned that an elderly man was in denial about his wife’s dying. The man kept asking the staff to save her and work for her recovery. They asked me to speak with the husband…

Martha was a resident in the hospice house where I worked. She was not particularly interested in facing her death. She was restless. She wanted to be awake and about her life, but was not very satisfied with that option either. Watching her, one got the feeling that if she could take a nap, she might feel better…

I was called by the hospice team to visit a patient and his family late in the afternoon. They were upset. Staff wanted me to check in with them because their anxiety was high. The patient was in a hospice house. When I arrived and knocked on the door to the room about five or…