The last wishes of 87-year old hospice patient Miriam were fulfilled recently with the help staff from the Hadassah University Hospital's Mt. Scopus Hospice.
Miriam, who passed away this week, spent the last few months of her life at the hospice residence. During her time their staff got to know her through a unique project designed to acquaintance staff with patients in the last stage of their lives. After they got to know her, they understood that they needed to help Miriam in experiencing one last meaningful moment: escorting her from the hospital to the synagogue where a Torah scroll was dedicated in her late husband's name.
“It is important to us that we get to know the life stories of our patients, and it is important to our patients that we get to know the full life they had, the previous chapters in the story of their lives," said hospice nurse Abigail Damari.
"From this need a project was established in the ward wherein we asked patient families to familiarize staff with the life stories of the patients.
As the staff got to know Miriam, they learned that she was a widow with no children, whose main visitor was her devoted brother. They asked her brother to tell them of Miriam's life story. He happily obliged, and recounted how Miriam was a woman of kindness who cared for everyone and always gave generously.
He explained that Miriam had the privilege of bringing two Torah scrolls into synagogue, one of which was donated to the local synagogue in her home neighborhood in the name of her late husband. Miriam would visit the synagogue every week in order to visit the Torah scroll.
From hearing this story staff knew that they had to take Miriam to the synagogue to visit the Torah scroll which clearly meant so much to her.
The effort was not simple, and the project required many logistics to be organized in order to get Miriam out of her hospice bed and into the synagogue. It was done in coordination with the synagogue's gabay and help from the Ezra Le'Marpeh Center.
Miriam was accompanied a nurse, a social worker, and a department staff volunteer who stayed by her side the entire time as she was escorted from the hospital's hospice center to the synagogue by ambulance.
She was able to see her beloved Torah scroll one last time and kiss it.
"This trip was very significant in the last episode of her life, we saw the emotions that flooded her, and she thanked us warmly," said Damari.
"For the staff it was clear that this is an initiative that we need to continue. We said goodbye to her sadly this week, but we did so knowing that she had managed to get closure from a significant life moment and fulfill one last wish."