No one wants to think of death at any age especially when young but death is the reality of life and for some of us it has to be faced head on when confronted with the actuality of a loved one facing terminal illness or a sudden loss due to trauma.

Family and friends can provide great support during this heart wrenching time but this area is fortunate to also have the organization “Elk Valley Hospice” that offers trained volunteers who are dedicated to providing confidential, non-judgemental support, comfort and care to individuals that face life threatening illness and to their families.

On Thursday January 22, at 7:00 pm about thirty people came to the Resource launch of the designated area of material specifically earmarked for the dying and grieving. Catalogued by Heather Gordon, long–time library personnel at Fernie Heritage Library, the shelves offer a great array of material for those needing information.

Hospice president Sarah Parry gave a short speech on the work of the Hospice and thanked the volunteers.

She touched on what Hospice truly means and how “Volunteers can help make a challenging time more manageable and meaningful by giving confidential, respectful support.”

Hospice members are a group of community volunteers, health care professionals and caregivers dedicated to giving support that is free to all that need it. Volunteer training sessions are offered at The College of the Rockies Fernie Campus – call 250 423- 4691 for information.
According to information provided “Hospice is a philosophy that encourages a focus on life and living, on providing compassionate care for patients with a life threatening illness and their friends and family. As a registered non-profit, community based organization composed of dedicated health care professionals and well trained volunteers we offer a holistic form of palliative care. We can help make a difficult life passage more manageable and meaningful by providing confidential support, respectful to the personal dignity of everyone involved. In your own home, at the hospital or in a nursing home facility, wherever you need emotional support the Elk Valley Hospice Care Team is available to you.”

The volunteers are compassionate listeners that can speak to the dying and talk about it in person or on the telephone, they can provided respite time for caregivers, emotional and spiritual support to people of all faiths and beliefs for individual and families. Plus they have a large number of reading and resource material now available at the Fernie Heritage Library in one designated spot.

Family members or health care professionals can contact hospice to request assistance as long as they have permission from the person needing this service.

The Elk Valley is fortunate to have amazing volunteers offering their time to help those dying and grieving. Many of them have encountered this suffering themselves. For instance one volunteer is a lovely young woman who lost her husband to cancer when their child was only months old. Nearly four years later she says she has worked through grief and pain with the support of family and friends and couldn’t have done it without them. Another volunteer suffered the loss of a teen to suicide. It’s extremely sad when there is no explanation as to why someone bright and seemingly happy takes their own life. But having worked through pain allows for volunteers to take on various aspect of Hospice, from sitting on the board to going out and sitting with dying individuals and grieving family members.

These volunteers have a degree of compassion and sensitivity that is needed during time of pain because when one is in this situation most times it is the person who has already experienced it that realizes what is truly needed to offer comfort.

Hospice is one of those topics that most people would rather not discuss; it brings one’s own mortality way to close to the surface for comfort. Most of us would rather go on believing that death is not going to happen to us only to someone else. It is so much easier to ignore this reality. However, death is inevitable, as we are born so we will die, once this is accepted what we do in the interim can transform how we live life.

Hospice volunteers are amazing, special people. Thank you so much for the work you do for the people of this Valley. Thank you for being with those that need you at the most important transition of life, surely your presence at this most vulnerable time is the greatest gift one person can bestow on another.

For information on Elk Valley Hospice call 250 423-4453 (ext.309) or elkvalleyhospice@gmail.com and www.elkvalleyhospice.com