I first met Phil on a sunny Tuesday afternoon in his private room up on the palliative care unit. He was a retired engineer in his late 70s. He had…
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palliative care
It was my turn to be on call during Easter. My pager went off shortly after midnight. “Lawrence, one of our patients is crashing. We need your support here,” the nurse from the palliative ward said. A woman in her 80s was dying and her family was not ready to let her go.
She was lying with her back to me. By then, she needed help turning in her bed, and there was no room at the other side for me to sit to face her. But even with her back to me, I could be with her. I could wait with her. As I waited, I reflected on what this gracious 88-year-old woman of God had come to mean to me.