Our Hospice Spotlight Volunteer Reflections are shared monthly. Reflections are stories of connection and meaning, presented in the volunteer’s own words. Here is Tony Diana’s Reflection.
Finding Peace in the Moment of Letting Go
A Time for Letting Go
I had a patient who was a centenarian, and the moment I walked into her room, I saw this wrinkled-faced little lady with beautiful gray long hair, just sitting there, and she said,
“Hi, how are you?”
I said, “Well gosh, it’s a pleasure to meet you!”
We visited a little and then she asked that we pray together.
“You know, I have never met 100-year-old person. You are my very first in my whole life,” I said.
She responded by telling me that she never wanted to live this long, but that she didn’t mind it either. Over the weeks that I visited, I could tell she was starting to slow down a bit. Then, one day, she was in bed – and that moment took me aback. Because, my thinking was, if she had lived 100 years, she was probably going to live at least five more. But, she was in bed now-that was my reminder that life doesn’t last as long as we want it to.
I didn’t want her to die, but rather wanted her to hang on for a few more days so we could share more time together. On my last visit, I noticed that her face was smooth, she looked like a young woman, her hair combed back and nicely coiffed. Her eyes look so pretty, she was breathing but she wasn’t laboring. She truly looked like an angel.
It was at that moment that I knew that she had to go.
Read Tony Diana’s Spotlight
