The “Gift” is a poem inspired by the participants in a phenomenological study entitled “Dying at Home: A Lived Experience of Elderly Male Hospice Clients”. The author dwelled with ten elderly male hospice clients who had been diagnosed with less than six months to live. Many researchers have studied death and dying, but few have asked clients to vividly describe this experience in their own words. The participants of the study spoke of what was important to them, who was important to them, and how this lived experience had facilitated their transcendence. Each participant offered a personal story. A major component of the story was “The Gift” from others—family, friends, hospice care professionals. As the participants eloquently spoke of the gift bestowed upon them, they also confessed of the inability to share their thoughts and feelings about ‘the gift’. The researcher wrote the poem, “The Gift”, to share with the givers of this gift the words dying clients could not communicate to them. The author dedicates this poem to all hospice clients, their families and friends, and the hospice nurses who provide their care. It is my goal that it will provide them with a new insight of the valued concerns of their predecessors so that the final path of dying clients will be paved with warmth, kindness, acceptance, and a remembrance of ‘the unselfish gift of self’.
Back to Creative Arts
Back to 37th Biennial Convention - Clinical Sessions
Sigma Theta Tau International