She’s always smiling. She’s never really ever talked about it

Andrea (with Christina) – Client – Palliative Services

It’s a series of memories. She tends to have zingers. Andrea was being assessed every three months or so. They do this memory test. The woman says, “Andrea, I will give you three words and five minutes later I will ask you what they were.” So she gave her the words: Kitchen, table, and flowers. Now as you noticed, my whole kitchen is surrounded by flowers because I love plants and flowers. So the time comes for Andrea to remember the words and she could remember kitchen and table, but she couldn’t remember the last word, flower. So I said to Andrea , “Look around. What does mum love?” And she said, ”ME! ME!” She was so proud of herself saying, “ME! My Mum loves me!”

Click play to hear a full interview with Andrea’s mom below: 

He lived… until he died

Ruth – Client – Palliative Services

My husband, he very much wanted to die at home. And he enjoyed it. My daughter and her two-and-half-year-old son live with us. She’s a single mother. And we’re all together. And what my husband, Harry, wanted was to be around his family and be around us as much as he could. And to watch his grandson, Joey, grow. It was wonderful. When Joey came back from daycare he would go running and jumping on his grandfather’s bed, playing with him. It was great. He was always hopeful. He handled himself like it was another day at the office. He kept working right until the week before. He never got dire. He lived until he died.

Click play to hear a full interview with Ruth below: 

I just changed. I said to myself, “I can’t live like this anymore.”

Morris – Client – Palliative Services

You have no idea how much I’ve changed my life from years ago til right now. I was in the shelter system for the last seven years. That’s where I met Kristen. You see, back then I go back on the drugs. Every cent I had went on drugs. Every, every thing! But I never stole. I ever did anything like that. It was just as soon as I got some money, it just went to drugs. Which is why I moved away. I just said, “I can’t live like this anymore.” It was three years before my diagnosis and I said to myself, “I’m going change.”

Click play to hear a full interview with Morris below: 

After I was told I was going to die,  I took charge of my own life

Cheryl – Client – Palliative Services

I was told a day or a week til death so I had to stop work. And after I was told I was going to die, I took charge of my own life and not to do what doctors were telling me what to do. You see, along the way I was misdiagnosed. So you see, being a nurse was a part of that because of the knowledge I had medically. But above all of that was the faith I was given. I was told, I was actually told, “You’re going to die” if I didn’t do what the doctors said. Yet the faith said to me, “No, you’re not.” It was the faith. Just the faith that I had embraced had embraced me.

Click play to hear a full interview with Cheryl below: 

I gave up. I didn’t want to live anymore. And that’s the honest truth

Buddy – Client – Palliative Services

Because it all happened within three months I lost my eldest son then I lost my wife of 50 years, I was in the depths. I had given up completely. Actually, I didn’t feel like carrying on. But there were other people who encouraged me. They were tough times. It was not easy to cope… and this woman…To this woman, I owe her my life!

Click play to hear a full interview with Buddy below: 

More than a blood relation

Ashfaq Awan – Client – Palliative Services

The doctor said he couldn’t survive more than a year and a half. I always thought he had six months left, six months left, six months left. I was always stressed throughout this life. Whenever I needed help, she was there to help us. I always ask her what I could do for this problem or that problem and she’s always gentle and kind to us. It has really helped us come out of that stress. When you are all alone and there’s no one around you, my family was back home, and my husband was all the time on the bed, she treated us more than a blood relation that could console you. And she did that for us.

Click play to hear a full interview with Ashfaq’s wife below: 

I help people to find meaning from loss

Betty Ann Rutledge – Volunteers, Outreach & Training Community Hospice & Friendly Visiting Program

I met him when I first started in 1991. My Mom had just been diagnosed with cancer and so for the six months that she lived, he actually helped me prepare for her death. Like here is a man, who he himself was living with a terminal illness, and at the time when life expectancy for people with HIV was not great. It was before all the drug treatments. He saw something in me that was worth tending to. You know, he knew that I coming in young, fresh, and full of energy. You know, as an activist. My friend, Ted, was tested HIV positive and I was wanting to be involved. And I think he saw what a big heart I had and I think he saw if I wasn’t companioned well on the journey I was on—with my Mom and Ted—I was not going to be able to sustain doing this work. And I think he saw something in me that I didn’t even see in myself.

Click play to hear a full interview with Betty Ann below: 

No longer fearing death

Catherine Ho – Volunteer Palliative Program

I no longer fear death. And I think I know when it’s a good death so that helps me as far as my illness and helps me to be a better person. I’ve gone through two life-theatening diseases, the return of my cancer, but now I am still living. So I think when it comes it comes. I no longer worry about life or death.

Felt like I was left on an island by myself

Novelette Munroe – Client and Volunteer – Bereavement Program

It’s not something a teenager or a 20-year-old typically thinks about. That their life will be cut shorter than the average person and so it was something I had to think about. And then, be there for my friends as they experienced all their ailments that eventually took their lives and wonder at the same time when that would happen to me.

Click play to hear a full interview with Novelette below: 

It’s very simple. I just said, “I am there for you.”

Emmanuel Micallef – Client – Palliative Services

It happened. You can’t go back and change it… What is happening tomorrow, I can’t control it. So all I can control is today. It’s very simple. I just said, “I am there for you.” I said I am going to have my downs and my ups but I will always here for you. I have prostate cancer. I have arthritis in my knees and you know, these things happen. So like I said, I am here for you.

Click play to hear a full interview with Emmanuel below: