I’ve had relatives who’ve come in before but they never made it out, they died after a couple of weeks. When he was asked to come in we were pretty nervous, we didn’t quite know what to expect. Yeah, we were scared. We had to do something though. His tummy pain was real bad, but it was his anxiety and panic attacks that were the worst. He’d freak out and I didn’t know what to do. I’d freak out too. His pain was controlled after a couple of days in hospice, then his panic attacks settled down. This was despite having received the worst news ever, that he had cancer.

We didn’t know they were looking for cancer during the last three months. We thought they were trying to find out why he was constipated. We didn’t know why he had lost 30kg of weight. He had always loved food but then he had no appetite. The poos kept on changing, sometimes hard, sometimes soft, sometimes with blood. They stuck a tube up his bum to have a look but they had to stop because the sedation they gave him almost killed him. It was a shock when the hospice doctors told us that the other doctors thought he had cancer.

The other great thing about being here in the hospice is that it is neutral ground. It was safe for him and his ‘niece’ to meet up here. You allowed us to have some space and they were able to start talking. Yesterday they ended up just going to a cafe together and they sorted out the issue between them that had kept them apart for decades. He’d done some stuff in the past. He’d done his time. Coming here to hospice allowed them to heal. Deep healing of the spirit happened yesterday. He came back a changed man. A father and daughter were able to connect with each other, to start to build a relationship that had been broken for years. It was good for the grandchildren to see this happen. It’s good for the whole family. We couldn’t have done it without what you have provided us here. It means so much to us. Thank you so much.