The Essence of Caring for the Dying and the Grieving
If Leukodystrophy is about anything it is about being plunged into the abyss of our unknown and unexperienced emotions. We have no prior knowledge of the intensity of the agony that we are enduring. We have never felt the gut retching, mind-numbing, incessant pain that penetrates every corpuscle of our body.
There is no literary companion to guide us through this pathless, forest of fears. We know others have done it but that is academic and remote to our reason. We are rarely sustained with a survival substructure built with understanding, experience, and empathy. Some are more fortunate than others and benefit from the brilliant work done by one of the greatest minds of the past 100 years.
Who is Elisabeth Kübler-Ross?
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (July 8, 1926 – August 24, 2004) was a Swiss-American psychiatrist, a pioneer in near-death studies and grief. Her understanding and ability to teach in a loving and practical manner helped save many lives from desperate decisions and allowed them to transcend their pain and make sense of the eternal reality of death and dying.
By July 1982, Kübler-Ross taught 125,000 students in death and dying courses in colleges, seminaries, medical schools, hospitals, and social-work institutions. Kübler-Ross was a 2007 inductee into the National Women’s Hall of Fame she was named by Time magazine as one of the “100 Most Important Thinkers” of the 20th Century[3] and she was the recipient of nineteen honorary degrees.
She wisely taught her medical students; “Now you are reacting like human beings instead of scientists. Maybe now you’ll not only know how a dying patient feels but you will also be able to treat them with compassion the same compassion that you would want for yourself”.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was the first individual to transfigure the way that the world looks at the terminally ill, she pioneered hospice-care and near-death research, and was the first to bring terminally ill individuals’ lives to the public eye. Elisabeth was the driving force behind the movement for doctors and nurses alike to “treat the dying with dignity”.
What has happened to that training? Why do the 21st-century gatekeepers of her profound truths decide they know better? Why do we have to search for those who are in tune and can deliver the anodyne to our agony and grief? Can I urge you with all of my being to enrol for this wonderful Eleven-Part Journey to Understanding What Matters Most!
