Drops in the Ocean of Caring: What Home Care and Hospice
Mean to Millions
 |
| Val J. Halamandaris President of NAHC
and founder of the Caring Institute in this l997 photo
with the self described "homecare and hospice nurse" who
founded the Missionaries of Charity to provide home care
to aged, infirm, disabled and dying people all around
the globe. |
Revered by millions as a living saint
even as she walked the earth, Mother Teresa’s legacy,
great love, and powerful example— the kindness
she showed and work among the sick and the dying she did and
the sisters and brothers of her order continue — are
reflected each day in the work of home care and hospice caregivers
and volunteers. Most would balk at being equated with such
a figure as Mother Teresa, towering in her humble simplicity;
but, indeed, that is how she described herself in a conversation
with NAHC President Val J. Halamandaris: as a home care and
hospice nurse.
Much of these caregivers’ work goes unnoticed,
unsung, and may feel inconsequential. In his book, “Something
Beautiful for God,” journalist and author Malcolm
Muggeridge quoted Mother discussing this very thing
concerning the work of the Missionaries of Charity. “We
ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop
in the ocean,” she said. “But if that drop
was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less
because of that missing drop.” So too, although
often unrecognized by society at large, the care and
services provided by home care and hospice caregivers
are vital to those who receive them, many of whom otherwise
would be neglected and left in the shadows of decline
and illness.
Mother Teresa told Muggeridge, “The biggest
disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather
the feeling of being unwanted, uncared for, and deserted
by everybody. The greatest evil is the lack of love
and charity, the terrible indifference towards one’s
neighbor who lives at the roadside assaulted by exploitation,
corruption, poverty, and disease.” Here we present
a glimpse of how home care and hospice caregivers of
all kinds are connecting with our nation’s frail
elderly, infirm, and disabled individuals — not
only in a sterile sense of “health care” or “personal
care” but in shared humanity and friendship — and
changing their lives for the better. |
