In Recognition of your
Servant Leadership, Commitment, Compassion and Dedication
~To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heavens~ Ecclesiastes 3
“With all due respect to the best technology, I don’t want high tech. I want high touch. Also, I want comfort care. But don’t prolong my dying process! Right now~ I’m alive! Treat me that way. Help me integrate the reality: I am dying. Deepen my quality of life NOW~time is running out. Don’t cut me off from my loved ones; don’t robe me of the precious time that I have left with useless procedures. Don’t cut me off from the love which makes my living worthwhile. Replace your concern about my dying with concern for quality presence. Replace my fear with hope”—Sister Aloysius Albert, OSF
No, I'm not dying. This was a presentation given at a VAS organization training session I attended.
ReplyDeleteVAS is a volunteer organization that provides guardianship services for incapacitated adults. I volunteer for the organization, making end of life decisions for those who can no longer do so themselves. It requires a degree of disengagement from overly emotional responses to the event of death and dying. It requires the volunteer to make a decision to the best of our ability, that might reflect what that person might want at the end of life. It gives dignity to the dying person, mercy and compassion at the end of life.