Helping people over the last mile

Grief, it is said, is a journey of opposites. In the midst of darkness, people sometimes wonder if there is light.
Fortunately, there is a group of people dedicated to shining that light in the darkest places and bringing people safely to the other side.
That is just one aspect of the work of people like the Kenora-Rainy River District Palliative Care Volunteer Group, but there is another as well.
For some people, death comes swiftly and unexpectedly. For others and their families, death is a long, slow process that cannot be deferred, but it can be endured.
It is for these people—and those who love and care for them during their final weeks and months—that the district palliative care group is all about.
As part of National Hospice and Palliative Care Week, the group held an “Evening for Reflections” on Monday night at the local Knights of Columbus Hall both to recognize its volunteers and to remember those who are gone.
On this evening, volunteers from across the area gathered to remember lost loved ones and to encourage each other. Three volunteers lit three candles to symbolize the three aspects of losing a loved one—grief, courage, and love.
Afterwards, others on hand came up to light a number of smaller candles in memory of their personal loved ones now departed.
The district palliative care group is one of 90 such agencies serving 400 communities throughout Ontario. Funded by the Ministry of Health, it is composed of volunteers—visitors and committee members—who are dedicated to helping not only the terminally ill, but the family members who take care of them.
“Some of what we do is for the patient, some is for the care-giver, and some is impossible to distinguish,” said Teresa Bolen, the group’s co-ordinator for Fort Frances.
Bolen was among the first 35 volunteers when the organization began in Fort Frances back in 1999. Volunteers are screened and then given a training course lasting up to two months before they are assigned to clients.
The volunteers then are assigned as needed to families in their respective communities. They come from all walks of life, but the one thing they have in common is experience.
“We’ve all been there,” said Bolen.
The primary mission of the volunteers is to provide fellowship, friendship, and emotional support for the dying—and to foster a comfortable and dignified environment.
They also provide a much-needed break for family caregivers who sometimes spend weeks on end tending to the needs of their loved ones.
“We are there for an hour, for a day, or for as long as it takes,” said district co-ordinator Wilma Sletmoen. “It takes great courage to know life is coming to an end and facing it.”
Sletmoen’s background is in nursing, where she specialized in public health and in homemaker training, but she always had a special interest in palliative care.
“[Palliative care] has always been dear to my heart,” she explained.
What warmed her heart was the response from the community at large.
“We were looking for 35 volunteers from the Fort Frances area,” she recalled. “I was flabbergasted when 60 people turned out.”
If you wish to volunteer, or have need of the services the district palliative care group provides, call Sletmoen at 274-9983.