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Nancy
Telos, Chaplain © KUED 2000
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Nancy Telos, Chaplain
The hospice philosophy is to support people dying at home, making them
as comfortable as possible without trying to actively treat any disease
processes ravaging their bodies. There is, however, inherent suffering
in the relentless losses that the seriously ill face daily. There are
challenges to our beliefs and the meaning we have ascribed to our existence.
Diagnosis of a life threatening illness is the beginning of facing an
exquisite vulnerability to changes in identities, for example, being the
provider, or the mom actively caring for her family. There are changes
in body image, activity, pain, eating habits and sleep, to name a few.
Eventually, the ultimate change is facing who we are beyond this physical
body and personality: its desires and fears, its pain and pleasures, its
skills and defects.
The hospice chaplain's job is to listen with our whole self. It is our
privilege to recognize, affirm and support that in all of us which
cannot die, and to help patients and families trust the love "in
which we live, and move, and have our being. A chaplain stays present
with patients and families suffering and joy, accompanying them through
the process of change. We identify and affirm the beauty and courage and
strength and compassion and generosity patients and families show for
each other through the hard work of dying, and caring for someone you
love who is dying. It is a privilege.
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