As Death Gets Closer: The Last Days and Hours at Hospice

I'm honored to stand witness to those intimate, vulnerable moments.

Palliative Care vs. Hospice: What's the Difference?

Palliative care and hospice are both prescribed to provide comfort and relief to someone who is suffering from an illness or medical condition. But they're not the same thing. 

Caring for a Terminally Ill Loved One: First Take Care of Yourself

Self-care takes a back seat when we care for dying loved ones. But it's one of the most important considerations in an emotionally and physically harrowing time.

A Beautiful Thing

A hospice volunteer reflects on life's beauty after a startling question from a man with a terminal illness.

Witnessing Two Deaths

Sometimes dying is full of confusion, fear, regret, denial, secrets, and chaos. Grief and conflict swirl through the person dying as well as through their family and friends. Decades of emotional and social dynamics intensify and sometimes remain unresolved at the end of life. This is especially true when someone is facing what we think of as an “early” death — the death of someone not yet in old age, someone who’s busy with children and career, has relationships in process, and still has so much left to do. Death can feel entirely wrong, cruel even, and like it comes far too soon.

The Zen of Food in Hospice

Food can nourish and nurture, even at the end of life.

Music is Good for the Soul, in Sickness and in Health

Music is an inextricable part of the human experience. We hear it in the womb, we play it as we say goodbye at funerals... and increasingly, music is used in hospice to enhance the last months of life in myriad ways.

Wishes Granted at the End of Life

If you're touched by the mission of Make-a-Wish, we think you'll appreciate Twilight Wish Foundation, making dreams come true for elders nearing the end of life.

JJ the Hospice Therapy Dog Lends a Helping Paw

Dogs can provide comfort to hospice patients and their families, or even to people who are grieving at funerals.

The Intimacy of Care

Being with people at the end of life as a volunteer caregiver with Zen Hospice Project for the past 15 months has felt like finding home.

Aromatherapy Triggers Memories and Relief for the Dying

is a series dedicated to opening conversations around death and dying. In this interview, we learn from the unique perspective of Nikki Hernandez, a certified clinical aromatherapist who works with hospice patients. She uses essential oils to bring relief to patients who are in pain or distress. Aromatherapy is not yet widely used in end-of-life care, but Hernandez thinks it should be in every hospice across the nation.

Living Her Dying – Lessons from a Young Woman

We are all humans together somewhere on the continuum of living and dying.

What It's Like to Comfort the Dying

is a series dedicated to opening conversations around death and dying, and how acknowledging our mortality can help us live better. In this interview, we learn from the unique perspective of a chaplain working in hospice.

Massage Therapy at the End of Life

Today's hospices are adding new therapies to bring their patients comfort and relief in their final days. One of these therapies is massage. We talked to Tami Legler-Roberts, a hospice massage therapist, about how she discovered a passion for helping patients at the end of their lives.

In the Presence of Death

...it is a unique and rare privilege to be in the presence of death, to face this ultimate reality of life right in front of me.

Facing Death: Holding On and Letting Go

Every death is different. A hospice caregiver shares insights about just how different people's responses to death can be.

Born to be Wild at the End of Life

Adrian was a rocker from way back, born to be wild. 

Dying Surrounded by Laughter and Song

A hospice volunteer shares insights inspired by two peaceful deaths.

Loving and Letting Go at the Zen Hospice Project

A hospice volunteer shares what she's learned about letting go.

A Hospice Social Worker on Grief and Empathy

This MJHS hospice social worker has walked a few miles in his patients' shoes.

A Hospice Patient and Her Cat

How an Internet community came together to help a hospice patient.