Hospice of the Comforter

There was an expression that grew out of the Vietnam experience: ‘We went as strangers, came home as brothers’. I think these words bear relative truth today in the field of veteran patient hospice care. I use the term relative with respect to the word “brothers” because in today’s military, women constitute a growing percentage of veterans and are all too often and tragically casualties of war as well as the men.

My name is Jim Lewis and I have been a volunteer with Hospice of the Comforter since September 2008. I am an Air Force veteran who served 5½ years as an Intelligence Officer in the United States Air Force Security Service (USAFSS) and with Tactical Air Command (TAC), and retired in 2008 as an English teacher after many years in a public high school classroom.

I write today about my experience with the newly launched Hospice of the Comforter veterans’ initiative and consider it an honor to do so. I have been involved with this program since 2010 when Volunteer Coordinator Barbara Hauck contacted me and asked if I would be interested in learning about this national hospice initiative that focused on veterans, and one that Hospice of the Comforter was ready to “jump on board” with.

I considered being asked to participate in this program a great privilege and have, subsequent to our initial informational meeting, attended webinars on post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), homelessness, and drug and sexual abuse. There have also been general criteria briefings by medical staff personnel nationally who care for hospice patients on how we, at Hospice of the Comforter, can best meet the needs of end stage veterans in the most optimal way possible.

I have also been privileged to spend time with veterans under the auspices of this program both in respite and befriending settings and in recent months became quite close to one gentleman, a WWII Army vet who later became a teacher and coach. We became friends, looked forward to our visits and were able to share “lots of stuff” before he passed. I have also met and spent time during respite visits with a Marine Infantrymen who survived the Korean War, a Marine Aviator who also flew with Air America (CIA) in Laos during the Vietnam War, a WWII veteran of the Merchant Marine, and a Chief Warrant Officer who flew in both the Korean and Gulf War conflicts, all fine gentlemen, all very ill, and all very courageous.

My feeling on matching veteran to veteran, which is partly what the volunteer aspect of this program is about, is that it is not an automatic. I say this because there are some veterans whose service experience was not a positive in their life and bringing it up is the last thing they are interested in doing; and there are veterans who, although they loved what they did and loved the branch of service they were dedicated to, do not want to share that experience with someone they just met regardless of veteran commonality, nor do they wish to be asked to walk once again through the fire of memories that may have scarred them so badly.

So, it is a delicate issue and should be decided by the patient veteran making the call if he or she wants a vet to visit or not. My experiences thus far have been positive in as much as one is dealing in the zone of death and dying and I consider all of my time spent a great personal honor. I think it’s safe to say I have found my niche in patient care and would encourage any veteran who is interested to investigate for himself or herself to see if this service may be for them.

Click here to learn more about becoming a volunteer.