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The Spiritual-Ethical Will: A Legacy Letter

People resonate with the themes, but find the term “ethical will” difficult. I began to refer to this document as the “spiritual-ethical will” and more recently as “legacy letters.” There are several… View »

Dating After Death: How I Knew I was Ready

By Jennifer Hawkins I was thirty-nine years old when my husband died unexpectedly in his sleep. It was the shock of a lifetime. He was my love, my rock, a crucial part of my life and our… View »

The Ethical Will: 'The most important message I have ever written'

Let’s start at the beginning. First, what is an ethical will and where did it come from? The ethical will is an ancient document from the Judeo-Christian tradition. The original template for its use… View »

Children and Grief

Death is difficult to understand, and when a community member dies – or many do as with the terrible tornadoes in Oklahoma or the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary – children may strugg… View »

Hospice

Most of us know someone who has been terminally ill, and chances are we know someone – an acquaintance, friend, family member – who has received hospice services. Even so, many of us d… View »

The Hospice Volunteer

Volunteers often get involved with hospice in order to give back to their community and help terminally ill patients and their families during a challenging time. In return, many hospice volunteers d… View »

What to Expect – and Demand – from a Good Hospice

Based on interviews and surveys of family caregivers who have used hospice care, the American Hospice Foundation has developed a checklist to help those who want to know what to expect, and even dema… View »

Hospice: A Model of Patient- and Family-Centered Care

It's all about you now – or maybe it's about someone you love. Your medical treatments haven't been helping lately, you know you are getting sicker, and you sense that your time on earth is limited.… View »

What is Hospice?

Hospice is a set of services that we all may need someday – if not for ourselves, for our parents. While death is not an option for any of us, we do have choices about the services we use at the end… View »

Debunking the Myths of Hospice

To learn about hospice, it is useful to start with debunking the common myths that in themselves create barriers to hospice. THE COMMON MYTHS OF HOSPICE Myth #1: Hospice is a place. Hos… View »