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Kathleen Bass

"TRUE LIFE IS LIVED WHEN TINY CHANGES OCCUR."


Here is The Monday Motivation (TMM) for you! Have a super wonderful week ahead.

My name is Kathleen. And I am a companion for seniors. One day I received a phone call from a client so that she could move into a retirement home. It was actually from her daughter and she asked if I would be interested in taking care of her brother who had been diagnosed with lung cancer. And did not want to stay in the nursing home and he had been put into to await his death. I was very happy to accept the position. Especially since it was very close to my home. And I could still carry on with my other clients. I met with David and we both agreed on hours and times. I stayed with David for about a week before he went into hospice. And then I visited him every day in the hospice until he passed away. David was 61 years old and an amazing person. I am so glad to have met but wished I could have met much sooner. After that, I started to investigate different courses that I could take to upgrade my credentials as a caregiver. I came across a course called Death Doula. I signed up to take them online.

It suggested that I look for organizations to volunteer to get better training. As I was looking through the internet for hospices in the area that I could volunteer at I came across Home Hospice Association. To become a volunteer with HHA. And at one point somebody called me and asked me if I would be interested in meeting with the CEO to discuss another volunteer opportunity. I quickly agreed and met with Tracy Robertson. It was quite funny that I had worked for Tracy several years ago for fundraising for the Bob Kemp hospice. Tracy explained more about what HHA did and what role I could play in helping the organization through volunteering.

My mother used to say that the talk is cheap but it takes money to buy whiskey. What she meant by it was, we can talk about making things different, changing things. Doing something. But without our actions, it doesn't mean anything. Today many people talk about our healthcare system and how understaffed our nursing homes are, our hospices are the hospitals. But you don't see a lot of people taking action to make it better a situation. This is my way of trying to make things change. Just a small bit to make things better.

- Kathleen Bass

YOUR LIFE DOES NOT GET BETTER BY CHANCE, IT GETS BETTER BY CHANGE.

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