Nancy Gratton

Review of Connecticut Hospice

The CT Hospice at Branford is a terminal care faci...

The CT Hospice at Branford is a terminal care facility, first and foremost. Although it offers all possible support to the family and friends of its guests, its primary role is to care for those of us who are looking at our very real mortality. We are not leaving this place with a couple of patches and a clean bill of health. To serve us, whether we're fully bed-ridden or, like me, temporarily still a touch ambulatory, they keep us comfortable, pain free or as near to as possible, without drugging us into blank numbness. The engage us. They make us laugh or help us cry. In the quiet hours of the morning, a nurse will mop the brow of a frightened, perhaps disoriented patient and help her recover her calm and grace and dignity. When another place might just leave a patient propped before a TV, here the volunteers, nurses, and CNAs draw us into their own lives. Just because we're terminal doesn't mean we have to begin to vegetate away from life. The peculiar society that springs up in Hospice care may not be fully clear to our loved ones. They are maybe thinking about the "service" they get for their "healthcare dollar." Their perspective is reasonable in the conventional world of sickness and cures, perhaps. But in my world, where life is quite finite, the joy and gentleness and kindness of Hospice folks - from staff to volunteers to the docs and nurses and CNAs - cannot be praised enough. Because of them, no matter how my condition may decline, no matter what comes, they have made my journey joyous, and will continue to do so for as long as it takes for me to make as graceful an end as i can. For this, I am more grateful than I could possibly say, and I hope my family and friends someday come to realize what a gift this time in Hospice has been for me.