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Opinion

What’s Next?

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At 3:50 P.M. on the afternoon of 17 December 1927, the commandant of the Boston Navy Yard received a flash radio message from the U.S. Coast Guard Destroyer Paulding: “Rammed and sank unknown submarine off Wood End, Provincetown.” Within minutes, the worst fears of many were realized when it was confirmed that the submarine was the USS S-4. Though rescue efforts immediately began in earnest, it was too late for the 39 crewmen and a civilian observer aboard S-4. Most had already perished; six men trapped in the torpedo compartment would not be rescued in time.

“Living and Dying the Choices I’ve Made”

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Ronnie was forty-five when he enrolled in outpatient hospice services with end stage cirrhosis of the liver. Ronnie had lived with his sister, “Net”, for thirteen years, but Ronnie spent most of his time out back in his “man cave”, an old 12x12 foot wooden plank shed furnished with a half bed, small table, TV and electric heater. After all, a man does need his solitude

“I didn’t always look like this!”

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I stopped and talked with a couple neighbors last night. They were coming out of their house as my little dog Ashae, my “Little Buckaroo”, and I were walking by. The husband is recovering from an injury. He’s been going to therapy and riding a stationary bike at home. I asked him how he was doing and he reported that he continues to improve; that he pushes himself a little farther every day. We talked about the importance of staying active, about how health and wellness, like a many other realities in life, are “motion activated”. When I shared about running the “Bank One Marathon” in Columbus years ago, the wife exclaimed, “You ran a marathon!” I explained, “I didn’t always look like this”. Can anyone out there relate?

WHY DID HE HAVE TO SAY THAT?

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The words came quickly and were spoken in the midst of an agonizing death, yet they still cause us to stop and give them consideration over two thousand years later. There are a lot of scenes and words from scripture that give us comfort and peace. There are many phrases and accounts that give us reason to celebrate and rejoice.

Taking it all in!

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For Terri and I, one of the many joys in life with our children and now our grandchildren have been those precious moments when they, with great excitement see things for the first time. I’m talking about those first-moment expressions and the sheer joy they exude when their eyes sparkle and their minds realize what certain things mean. Seeing things afresh and anew is what I desire to experience this year as I journey toward to Holiest of Christian celebrations.

Jesus Will Meet You at the Crossroads

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Dick was forty-four years old when he enrolled in our outpatient hospice service with lung cancer. He was slender with long grey hair and a full bushy beard. Dick looked like a cross between an old hippie and a mountain man. Dick was an independent contractor; and like many small contractors, he survived from job to job, had little financial reserves and no pension plan. Dick, terminally ill, financially destitute and with “nowhere to live” turned to his ex-wife, Jeannie, who being moved with compassion, took him in. Dick assured me, “We lived as brother and sister until we got remarried”, which was only three weeks before enrolling in hospice.

LAST WORDS

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Perhaps it’s an odd thing, but I love to read epitaphs. You know, those carefully chosen words that are found on tombstones. The world is filled with funny and thought-provoking sayings littered throughout graveyards at home and abroad. Some of my favorites include. “Here lies Butch, We planted him raw, He was quick on the trigger, But slow on the draw!” How about this one… “Under the sod, under the trees, Lies the body of Solomon Pease, He is not here, there is only the pod, Pease shelled out and went home to God!” and lastly in a cemetery in England, “Remember me as you walk by, as you are now so once was I, remember this and follow me!” to the which someone replied by writing on the tombstone… “To follow you I’ll not consent, until I know which way you went!” Addicting, isn’t it?

“I’ve never been without something to love”

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Daisy enrolled in hospice when she was ninety-years-old. She was born in Kentucky, married when she was fifteen and she and her new husband moved to a farm in Pike County, Ohio. Daisy worked as a nurse aide, and her husband owned and operated a small sawmill. Daisy reflected, “We didn’t have much but I always wanted a real pearl necklace, and my husband sacrificed and bought them for me. I loved and cherished that necklace.”

“We ignite something in each other, don’t we?”

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Helen was eighty-seven when she was enrolled in hospice with dementia. Before visiting Helen in the nursing home I called her grandson, Josh, for information about Helen, about her life; some stories, some memories that I could use to connect with Helen when I visited her. Josh reminisced; “Us grandkids always called her Nonie. She worked at clothing stores, but I think the only reason she worked was so she could buy things for us kids. She always bought us grandkids what we wanted. We would go to Nonie and she would give us the money for those one-hundred-dollar Nikes. And she collected that blue glass; and every time a grandchild was born she would buy a blue glass bluebird. And I remember the cookie jar at her house; I remember her making cinnamon rolls and no-bake cookies when dad and I visited; because she knew that dad liked them. And she is the one who got me drinking tea. She was the glue that held the family together. After my grandpa retired they traveled the world and someone bought them a globe and they put pins in all the places they’d been. And ask her how my aunt got her nickname, “Toot” or “Tootsie”.”

Acceptance is a wonderful thing

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Betty was in her early sixties when she enrolled in our outpatient hospice service with terminal breast cancer. It’s been several years since Betty passed away, but I’ve kept something she told me shelved in the back of my mind. So, I called Betty’s sister, Loraine, and asked her permission to write this story.

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