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By Erica Breen, Hospice Volunteer Coordinator Recently, Brattleboro Area Hospice volunteers completed a vigil with a client who lived alone. A vigil is when we offer a comforting presence over the final hours and days of a person’s life, while they are actively dying. In the...
By Jennie Reichman Well, I’ve finally joined the club. After 4 years of avoiding being infected with Covid-19, I came down with it in mid-February. It all started with gastro-intestinal distress, symptoms I’ve never associated with Covid, and after 24 hours of that I decided to...
Bereavement support groups offer a safe, mutually supportive environment for sharing experiences, insight, and encouragement through discussion, handouts, and suggestions for writing. Support groups are free of charge. 2024: The Spouse/Partner group runs in six to eight week cycles. It is currently meeting weekly on Monday...
This group is for family members, friends, and caregivers of folks with dementia. People tell us that sharing their experiences in the company of others who understand their particular situation can provide comfort, strength, validation, reassurance, and hope to endure the challenges and realize the...
Ongoing group, meets every other Tuesday in person. Caregiver, caretaker, care partner, care provider…whatever you call it, it takes a lot of yourself to care for another person, whether they are near or far. People tell us that sharing their experiences in the company of others...
Ruth Nangeroni, Hospice Care Coordinator My most memorable hospice client was a man, S, who was basically all alone in the world. He’d estranged himself from his family and had no real friends to speak of. Childhood abuse suffered in mental health hospitals had left S with...
New Year's Eve was never a big to-do growing up but it was still memorable. I don't recall my parents ever going to a NYE party; we were always home together. Probably because we would have a big holiday roast the next day, Mom didn't...
Five years ago, I drove out to Ohio on Thanksgiving day, hit a deer just shy of the PA/OH line, and then spent the next few days visiting with my parents in between replacing my car's windshield, finding out whether it was safe to drive...
Violet Jacob's Hallowe'en text The tattie-liftin's nearly through, They're ploughin' whaur the barley grew, And aifter dark, roond ilka stack, Ye'll see the horsemen stand an' crack O Lachlan, but I mind o' you! I mind foo often we hae seen Ten thoosand stars keek doon atween The nakit branches, an' below Baith fairm an'...
By Jennie Reichman Fall arrived this year by turning the seasonal page with a flourish. One day I’m out in the garden swatting black flies and the next I am wearing a sweater and turning up the heat in the house for the first time since...