FIRST PLACE: A Little Heaven on Earth
Every day when I go to work I take one more step into that very thin space between this earth and heaven. And even in the hardest of times I go to work, not alone on that journey but accompanied by eleven of the dearest, most caring, angelic and devilishly witty colleagues. Together we seem to thrive in the good days and survive the hard ones.
I am the administrator of Hospice and Home Care of Juneau. Most people think my job is hard, and that it might be depressing a majority of the time. Why? Because for the most part the people we work with are very ill, or old, or they are dying. And while that is stressful at times, it is hardly depressing because it gives meaning to work and to life.
My colleagues and coworkers include nurses, certified nursing aids, a counselor, social worker, office manager and a billing specialist. We speak in odds words to one another: Did we get the RAP? Is your OASIS completed? Did you answer all of the MO questions? What do you mean they DOWNCODED our claim? We answer cell phones and land-lines constantly during the day and get up in the middle of the night to go to someone's home.
Yet always, there is time to stop in the office and inquire of each other's day or the previous evening. We laugh and cry at the experiences we have trying to get into and out of the cars and navigate the roads in the dark rainy nights. We share our patient's fears and their joys. And yes, when they die, we mourn and we cry. But we always know we did what we could to walk those last steps with them in dignity and in comfort. Along the way they show us bits and pieces of life and love, and always they show us just a bit of heaven along the way.
I am grateful that I work with Ann, Arna, Jean, Kathy, Kathryn, Lesley, Maureen, Molly, Rita, Sandy, and Sara. I can t imagine working without them.
Kim Poole
Administrator, Hospice and Home Care