I have added this page to honor my clients who have gone to be with God.  You may be gone from this earth but you touched me in so many ways I can't thank you enough!

 

February 2011 - I guess I let this get away from me.  I have lost several clients and family members this last year.  After Jim, I lost a dear friend Lynn who fought like no other but lost her battle with ovarian cancer in June.  I lost my father, also in June, from a heart condition.  Not long after my dear friend Marjean went to see God.  In August my brother in law was gone.  My former employers at John's Grocery in Iowa City passed - first John and then a couple of weeks later his wife Erma - I attended their 50th anniversary about 20 years ago. In October, my grandmother in law.  It was a tough year.  In December, my son and his wife had our first grandchild - my husband said that maybe this is God's way of giving us something back with so many losses this year.  I didn't even know my husband thought that way.  He made me smile and the year ended on a positive note.

I currently work with Heartland Hospice in the Quad Cities providing massage treatments to hospice patients. The day my father passed away I had worked all day.  One of my clients asked me how I could work on so many people with the Hospice that I work with and not get depressed all the time?  I didn't have an answer.  The next day I did.  Sadly I reflected on that questions as we made funeral arrangements, and took care of all the details that went with the death of my father.  And it hit me.  When I meet a hospice patient I am seeing them in ill health for the most part.  They aren't as vibrant as they once were and the relationship I build with them is one of providing comfort and easing their pain.  We don't go to movies, bowling, or engage in social activities, those are the memories that they have with the one's that they love and have grown with.  When that hospice patient's life ends I find comfort in knowing that they are no longer suffering, that they have been able to go be with God and all that have gone before them. Not to say I don't get attached, I do to an extent.  I've even had a couple of patients that made me cry a little - of course there were no witnesses to that, but I did cry.  I see people every day that are so brave and yet accepting of the inevitable death that they face.  They give me strength and courage to face each day.  When I see them smile I know what I have done for them has brought to them some sense of comfort and hopefully some joy. 

As we embark on yet another year I look forward continuing my massage program.  I have had to make some adjustments and formalize the program so that I can accommodate more clients, but I know that is for the best.  I thank you for your support!

 

2/23/10

It has taken me a couple of days to figure out what to say about my friend Jim.  Jim passed away in his sleep this past weekend quite unexpectedly.  When you spend an hour a week with someone for about 2 years you become dear friends.  Not that Jim didn't befriend everyone that he encountered he was so vivacious and full of life - he loved life almost as much as he loved his wife Cindy, daughter Amanda, son Trae, and mom Elaine.  Jim always had a story to tell, every week something new and he could tell a story with such animation and character, he could have been a story teller.   While I am saddend that I won't get to hear anymore of tales I am somehow comforted in knowing that he can now enjoy that steak and bottle of ice cold brew he was longing for.  I hope that in heaven he gets to taste everything he hasn't had in the past year.  I know he probably has the angels rolling and holding their sides with the stories of his life on earth.  God blessed the earth with Jim for only 49 years.  Not nearly long enough for those of us that remain on this earth.

Cindy, Trae, Amanda, and Elaine may the angels wrap their wings around you and comfort you in your time of sorrow.  May you find peace in knowing that Jim is at peace and that sometime in the future you will be together again in the heavens above. 

 

12/17/09

My dear friend Sandie has gone with God.  I find it hard to put into words how this one lady touched my heart but she did.  I had the rare opportunity to be present with her as she enjoyed a guided imagery session and music therapy session with some members of her church and one of her two daughters.  She was so at peace.  Yet it provided me with a glimpse of what goes through your mind when you realize that your time is truely limited.  A glimpse of perhaps what went through my own mother's mind prior to her passing.  She looked forward to the peace and the end of her suffering yet she worried so about her children.  This next year will be so hard on them a year of firsts.   First every holiday without their mother, no mom to visit with just because.  It is a hard first year.  And the years that pass beyond now will be difficult but it really will get easier to accept.  Several years after my mother passed I was able to find in peace in celebrating the anniversary of her passing. It may have been the last time I had with her but it was and will always be her birthday unto heaven.  This year she turned 22 in heaven years.  My prayers go out to her children and her dear friends Larry and Lois.  You will certainly be missed on this earth Sandie.

 

12/1/09

We reached a milestone in our oncology massage program by providing the 200th and 201st free treatment at the end of November.  While it is a great accomplishment that we have been able to do so, it still saddens me that we have so many people affected by this disease. 

 

A new client asked me during her intake, why do you do this?  Funny, everyone asks me that.  I think my answer changed a bit over the course of this last year.  I have come to realize that it has a lot more to do with the fact that I watched my grandparents and my mother die of cancer than I realized at first. I saw the pain, I lived the part of the part time care giver, I've been the person that the doctors asked if they should give that increased dose of morphine to ease the suffering but the result would be the last breath.  I've gone on to live more years without my mother than I had with her.  Last year I watched my other grandmother slip away, not due to cancer, but none the less in pain.  I'm just not a person that can sit idly by and watch someone in pain and not do something.  If I can provide just a few minutes of relief, a few minutes of a deep relaxation, a moment of peace - true inner peace, I will continue to do so.

 

Comments that I recieve from my clients mean so much.  The comments are from the heart and soul and more often than not bring tears to my eyes privately. 

 

So when asked now why do you do this, my response is simply because of you.   

 

 

8/24/09

Just a note of thanks to each and every client that I see.  I have recently learned that one of my clients has gone on hospice and will probably go see God in the next year.  It has brought back memories of when my own mother learned that she was terminal and had to tell my sister and me.  While we were obvoiusly distraught by the news, we then learned what it was like to cherish every moment that you have with someone.  To really love and listen and just be with one another is the greatest of all gifts.  You are all so dear to me.  I will be here for you until you are no longer here with us.  I promise.

 

5/21/09

My dear friend Justin passed away yesterday peacefully at home.  He was surrounded by his wife, his parents, and his best friend.  Justin thank you for sharing your life with me.  You showed such bravery, determination, and such a love for life.  I will miss our sessions together.  I hope that you are now free from all the pain that you were enduring and that you have found eternal peace.  And Kelly, may God continue to watch over you for the rest of your days.  Your strength, compassion, and love for Justin are unsurpassed.  In the coming days, weeks, years, know that we are always here for you.