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Hiking for Hospice
This year I’m Hiking for Hospice. It was my hope to Hike one hundred kilometres by the 26th of June. At this point I have covered just over one hundred and fifty of those one hundred kilometres. Most of my Hospice Hiking happens on the Millennium Trail. In addition to the Trail, I’ve clocked a few kliks on the treadmill at The County Club and on the streets of Picton, Port Hope, Brighton and Cobourg. I’m an equal opportunity Hiker for Hospice. The interesting thing is in 1994, when the family was in Beaune France, we visited the ancient Hospice site. I’d never heard the word “hospice” before that day. We’d been in France less than a week and the Beaune site was on our radar. I’m not sure what I expected, but even with a detailed explanation from the Docent, and the translation of her words by LOML, I wasn’t really sure what hospice meant. That spectacular site was a hospital built in the Middle Ages, and Hospices de Beaune is one of France’s most prestigious historic monuments. It was overwhelming to imagine what medicine and healing was so long ago. In the mid 1400s the charitable institution, which was Hospice Beaune, was a place for the poor and most disadvantaged who were ill and/or injured. Hospice Beaune attended to the emotional, physical and spiritual needs for those at the end of life. Serious injury or illness was an “end of life” event when that hospice was created.
Fast forward to the new millennium. LOML and I, along with our siblings, were faced with our elderly, ailing parents. To say we weren’t really prepared for what was happening was an understatement. Like a lot of all y’all, in the deep recesses of our minds and hearts, our parents would always be “there”, in their own home or at the other end of a telephone call. Our parents would always be the people we called when we needed guidance, advice, help or the voice of experience. And then? Well, and then they weren’t. They needed our help. And for almost a decade we slowly began to parent-our-parents. We all took turns making sure they were eating properly. Or should I say, “We tried to make sure they were eating properly.” We helped them with the upkeep of their homes. We made sure they paid their bills. We chauffeured them to appointments and sat with them when their mental and physical health started to fail. My mother suffered a serious head injury in a fall, which only complicated her very light grip on reality. Eventually, she was hospitalised and spent weeks in the overcrowded, geriatric wing of a very large Toronto hospital. Near the end of her life, hospice care would have been a blessing for her, and for all of us. However, we did not have the wherewithal to look into palliative care. Mom died alone in a room in that hospital. Her physician told us she had C-dificile and had to be isolated. Personally, we feel they just didn’t want to deal with a person who was in an “awake coma” and at the end of her life. Later, that same year we dealt with the death of LOML’s Mom. She also had a gentle relationship with reality and, additionally, had cancer and eventually needed round-the-clock care. A live-in caregiver was hired for Mom Hart, but when she really needed Hospice care we were, once again, unaware. One year later my father passed away in the same hospital where Mom had died. Hospice care would have been blessing and a relief for us in the case of each of our parents. They would have benefited from End-of-Life Care. For everything our parents had done in their lives, they deserved kindness, caring and respect at the end of theirs.
And, here we are! The residents of Prince Edward County have a beautiful facility in Hospice Prince Edward. The Hospice Prince Edward organisation was brought to life by Mark Davis, Wendy White Davis and Donna Joyce. The “history and background” of this incredible organisation is available on their website. Over the years the programmes of Hospice Prince Edward have served countless people, their friends and families with a mission to support those living with, or affected by, a life-limiting illness.
This year I’m Hiking for Hospice with my friend Tarayn Hiddink. She and I are The Trail Hike Girls. We believe in Hospice Prince Edward. We want hospice to continue to be available to our community. Check their website to make a donation to this year’s Hike for Hospice! “Hospice is more about the quality of life than it is about death.”
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