This is the second of an ongoing series on volunteering at the Ina and Jack Kay Hospice at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus.

 “Suffering is only intolerable when nobody cares. One continually sees that faith in God and his care is made infinitely easier by faith in someone who has shown kindness and sympathy.” – Cicely Saunders

I knew intellectually when I started volunteering at the Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus Hospice that I would be meeting people who weren’t at the hospital to recover and go home. However, until you start working in a hospice, you don’t really understand that emotionally. You need to put yourself in a different frame of mind when you walk into the place.

To get to the Hadassah Hospice, you need to pass the Labor and Delivery Department. Sometimes the corridor is lined with newborn baby baskets. It feels as if you are walking down a passage that begins with life and ends with death.

Life is not really a circle; it is more like a straight road with several curves and stops along the way. When I enter the Hospice, I say a little prayer: “Please God, help me to make someone’s passage from this world to the next easier, or to meliorate the pain of a family member. Please give me the strength to continue this work.”

In turns out that volunteering in hospice care has opened up a whole new world of........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)