Thanksgiving 2025


 

Thanksgiving 2025

I worked in the Hospice House in Elkhart, Indiana as a volunteer for two years.  It is an absolutely beautiful facility, set in a wooded, wildflower prairie setting.  Most of the rooms look out into a woods, where deer are frequently seen.  It is really a stunning facility.

It was an amazing two years. Along with me on my shifts there were an RN, and an LPN to handle the medical client needs.  I did simple things. . .making simple meals and helping eat or feeding the people there.  Helping the nurses with lifting or moving the residents. Shaving and washing up little old men.  Sitting and listening to, or praying for sometimes with the residents there, for the last days of their lives.

While working there, I read a number of books on hospice care, and the last days.  One passage that struck me was the statement that in our western culture we view death as a dragon to be battled.  Other cultures view death as an essential integral part of the life process.

My work at the Hospice House was about twenty years ago, when I was in my 50's, today my thoughts from hospice house stay with me, and are reinforced as I approach the day of my own death.

Prior to working there, I felt that the luckiest people were those who died peacefully without warning in their sleep.  I no longer feel that way.  They are robbed of being able to put things right. . . being able to say things that need to be said. . .forgiving, reconciliation, putting things in order.

Who among us doesn't have housekeeping that needs to be done before leaving the house forever?  To me the lucky ones, are those with a warning that the end is approaching.  Yes, there is possibly pain, and fear, and the task of coming to peace with the approaching end, but there is also the blessing of time to put things right.

I think on this early Thanksgiving morning, of past holidays, faces that were there one year and missing the next.  We gather today.  Our house will be full, but there is no knowledge of what the year will bring.  What empty spots will be at the table next year?

Appreciate those around you today.  Give an extra warm hug.  Spread love liberally around. . . 


Thank You Lord for my loved ones. . .

I love You my God. . . 






Dave 


 

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