Honoring loss, love and community
Death is transformative and though it leaves mourning in its wake, those who have lost someone close to them can find comfort in the thought that their loved one is not entirely gone but has only shifted, from this world to the next.
This is the concept that sits at the heart of one of Nathan Adelson Hospice’s annual community events, the Celebration of Life – Live Butterfly Release, which took place this past Sunday, May 4 at the Calvada Eye. Amid the swaying trees and grass, residents came together for an afternoon of somber solace as hospice officials spoke of the anguish that can follow death and offering hope for a future of happiness, however altered it may be.
“When we lose someone who is a crucial part of our life, we feel grief,” Nathan Adelson Hospice Pahrump Chaplain Richard Martin told the crowd. “Often we feel horrendous grief and emotions and loss beyond anything we’ve ever imagined. But as the days and the weeks go on, we find ourselves often feeling a new emotion, a new sensation - we feel tension.
“We feel tension because we know that our world has come to a screeching halt but we look around us, to our friends and family, and the world around us continues to keep spinning. The mail keeps coming. We continue to have the same neighbors walk down the streets with their dogs or children, like they always have, but yet we feel like our world is so broken,” Martin continued.
And though time does not erase grief, he emphasized that with the passage of each month, those who have lost a loved one will eventually find that it eases. This however, can sometimes lead to another kind of internal tension, the kind prompted by misplaced guilt. In those moments, Martin said it is more important than ever for people to remember how much they were loved by those they lost and what their loved ones would want for them.
“I hope that you hear their voice in your ear, I hope you feel their hand on your shoulder, bidding you onward, bidding you to continue being the wonderful person you are,” Martin said.
The Celebration of Life – Live Butterfly Release also included remarks from Nathan Adelson Hospice Executive Director Lori Townsend and clinical manager Carol Jeuck, who ensured to include the late Dr. William Craig and Stanley Cuaresma, two hospice staffers who made a major impact, in their thoughts and prayers. Chaplain Joseph Hyatt then read a children’s story about the transformation from a caterpillar into a butterfly, relating it to the passage from life to death, before everyone pulled the tabs on their butterfly boxes to release the Painted Lady butterflies into the sky.
For information on the hospice and its events visit NAH.org
Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com
