Journey of Hearts

The parts of the service came from different sources.

For music one of our attendings and friend, Dr. Steve Hosea suggested Bobby Mc Farrin's acapella version of 23rd Psalm. The first verse of Amazing Grace was sung as a tribute to Sandy Rogers by a friend, Cynthia Stoddard, and then the remaining verses by the participants. One Sweet Day, the song by Mariah Carey and Boys to Men, was uggested by one of the Clerks from the Oncology Ward at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, who had seen her share of losses with patients and their family members.

The words from the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying were found by a friend, studying Buddhism.
For me these words describe the essence of what I try to share with my patients, and remind me of the reasons I became a doctor..."May I be the doctor, the medicine and may I be the nurse for all
the sick beings in the world, until everyone is healed." I included my poem, Transformation, as a symbol of change, of coming out of the grief and being Transformed.

The original blessing that was used was read by the Reverend Susan Copeland. It was a blessing for the healers. A Prayer similar to the original (if not identical) came in the mail a bit more than a week after I did this page. It has been edited in to reflect the original experience.

A Remembrance

The Lord is my shepherd, I have all I need.
She makes me lie down in green meadows, beside the still waters she will lead.
She restores my soul, she rights my wrongs,
She leads me in a path of good things and fills my heart with songs.
Even though I walk through a dark and weary land,
there is no other that can shake me.
She has said she won't forsake me. I am in her hand.
She sets a table before me in the presence of my foes.
She anoints my head with oil and my cup overflows.
Surely, surely, goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my life,
      and I will dwell in her house forever, forever and ever.
Glory be to our Mother and Daughter and to the Holy of Holies.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.
Bobby McFerrin's setting of the 23rd Psalm

The following names were patients lost over the year 1995-1996 at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. They were compiled from the resident physicians, nurses and attending physicians, some submitting many names, some just one or two, and others not wanting to participate at all.

These people touched our lives in many different ways.  We changed by caring for them and by knowing them.

I have changed the listing from the original version to an alphabetical one:
 

Gary Blades  Alvin Borgardt  Shannon Kay Borgardt  Willard Burtsfield  Doris Cannon  Norman Case  Elizabeth Davis  Jean Deason  Charles Dominguez  Judy Frederickson   Richard Fargo  Carl Hall  Ron Hart  Helen Henrotin  Gloria Holmes  Marcia Kamka

Lana Keith  Frances Kuchma  Irene Lamberton  Imogene Leadbetter  Robert Leavitt  Josephine Lerda   Pearl Mudgett  Vicki Paulsen  Paul Pico  Billy Ray  Dixie Reese  Sandra Rogers  Vivian Rosedale  Walter Solomon  Celia Sevilla  Carol Velasquez

May you leave here with peace in your heart.

After the service, people remained, not wanting to leave. Each took away an origami butterfly, and I would like to believe was transformed by the experience and left...

With Peace in their hearts