Foreword

I’ve reached a point in my life where my heart is open to the idea of helping people who are facing the end of lives’ journeys, and their families. So I decide to offer my help through Hospice, and make a choice that today is my “someday”. I complete my volunteer training. The phone call from Hospice comes to my office at Smith Barney. I accept my first assignment and my life changes.

This intimate journal consists of ten brief chapters accounting for the two-year period of August 2000 through August 2002. Each chapter bears the first name of a special friend of mine and gives a brief account of our hospice relationship. This journal is my story. Knowing each of these people has enriched my life.

My hope is that readers will be inspired to take their own actions. By becoming involved with those under hospice care you receive extraordinary gifts in return. People with a life-limiting illness have much to teach us—about living as well as about dying.

With a grateful heart,

Mary Wichmann, Volunteer

Hospice of the Red River Valley