MANILA, Philippines—For 20 years now, a hospice has been giving emotional care and support to the dying in Los Baños, Laguna, through volunteers who are its heart.
It is not easy or pleasant to visit the dying. Most dying people are not pretty to look at, being skin and bones or with open cancer wounds.
Yet volunteers from the Madre de Amor Hospice go to visit them in their own homes. Every week, rain or shine, the volunteers go because they are expected. They bring friendship, care and listening. Or just a hand to hold.
Hospice care is provided in the homes because experience has shown the dying prefer to die at home surrounded by familiar things and the people they love.
From curing to caring
The founder of Madre de Amor was the late oncologist, Dr. Josefina Magno. She defined hospice care thus: “When cure of disease is no longer possible, the focus of treatment should be from curing to caring. The physician can now say to the patient: I can no longer cure you but I will continue to care for you.”
Magno personally trained Dr. Rhodora Ocampo, who for the past 20 years, has been the medical director of Madre de Amor.
Also working for the past 20 years with Ocampo are several volunteers who say they have come to understand that loneliness is a big problem for the dying.
Knowing that loneliness can be as excruciating as physical pain, the volunteers bring to the dying a great deal of loving care and attention.
Precious gifts
Alice Capiral, Eva Data and Tess Gonzales said they have received precious gifts from working as volunteers at the hospice.
A successful realtor, Capiral says her gift is realizing that dying to oneself means that others may have life.
Gonzales, a cancer survivor, believes it is payback time. Years before, she was working at the University of Missouri Medical Center where some of the patients were children with terminal illnesses. When she herself was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995, doctors told her she had six months to live.
“Here I am, still alive and well in 2015,” says Gonzales joyfully.
She was a teacher of English literature both in Missouri and Los Baños. She is married to Rene Gonzales, a former executive of San Miguel Corp.
Far from easy work
Data was happy as a restaurateur when she was invited by Ocampo to be a hospice volunteer. Initially she resisted.
“I was afraid to deal with the terminally ill. I was assigned to three patients and one of them was actively dying. There was no turning back. I did what I had to do. I prayed to the Lord to help me cope,” she says.
“Doing hospice is not easy,” adds Data. “There are patients who are not easy to care for, and there are families who are not easy to deal with. There are times when I wonder if what I am doing is worth it. On those times, I tell myself that since they are suffering, I should be more understanding.”
Very rewarding
But she says the rewards have been plenty.
“I discovered what I am made of and what I am capable of. I thought I was weak, but because of my hospice experience, I became strong. My patients and their families teach me so many things about life and how to Iive it. They teach me to accept things, how to cope with crises, how to be patient, to be compassionate, and most of all, I become closer to God,” says Data.
“Hospice patients have given me more than I have given them. Indeed, it humbles me how I owe them so much,” she says.
Hospice volunteers are most welcome at the Madre de Amor Center at 9957 Amethyst St., Los Baños Subdivision, Los Baños, Laguna. E-mail info@hospice.org.ph; www.hospice.org.ph