Beth has been working at Angels Grace Hospice & Palliative Care for about a year and would like to share an experience she had with one of the patients.
She met Anna early in the wintertime. As she got to know Beth, Anna started opening up with conversations about life. As the seasons started to change, she contemplated summer coming. Growing up in Springfield, Illinois, she worked hard canning beans, and she would steal one of the canning jars to catch fireflies with her sister. Anna would then watch the fireflies until she fell asleep, but feeling bad about keeping them in a jar for a long period, she would release them.
So Beth then found a plastic jar, filled them with battery-powered fairy lights, and Anna now has an ethical way to keep them for herself to remind her of those early days. She was thrilled.
Beth’s advice for volunteers is to have patience until they start opening up. Keep your face lit up, listen to what they have to say, and they may light up and share something about their past.