Mary Fisher's Heroes

Mary Fisher's Heroes

Pat Gibbons discusses the role of hospices.

Brenda Northrup and Pat Gibbons, Mission Hill Hospice, Boston.

Mission Hill Hospice     When you set about dying, you start to close up your affairs and your world. You clean up what you can, forgive what you must, and settle accounts as best you're able. Then you narrow the circle of friends to people you want to be with. The one many of us have wanted at the center of that circle - the one I hope will be there for me - is Pat Gibbons.
    Pat, who was the former director of the Mission Hill Hospice, couldn't wait to introduce me to Brenda Northrup. "She's a character," said Pat, laughing while shaking her head... It could have been Auntie Mame who answered our knock on her door, "Okay, honey, come on in - come see Brenda!"
    While watching Pat...I realized that she gave everyone the gift she gave to me. Pat gives herself. She was giving herself to Brenda - razor-thin, nearly bald, chain-smoking and grinning Brenda. When Pat is with you, you are the only person in her life...She takes you in like a long-lost friend who cannot get enough of hearing the news of your life. Previous Page

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