When Evening Comes: The Education of a Hospice Volunteer

by Christine Andreae

Book Overview

When Christine Andreae signed up for twenty-seven hours of patient-care training with the Blue Ridge Hospice in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, her parents were still living and her grandparents' funerals hadn't involved a viewing. Her only direct experience with death had been when, at the age of six, she had gone with her father to the viewing for the family's parish priest. At a training session, the leader passed around a tray of small objects and...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312268718
• ISBN13: 9780312268718
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 213 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

When Evening Comes

This book was interesting to read as I am a new hospice volunteer, but I really didn't get any real direction from it. It simply revealed the author's experience with some dying patients. I was hoping for some enlightenment as to how to talk to patients under hospice care and how to initiate a meaningful relationship.

An Inside View of Dying

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in hospice work. But beyond that, I would recommend it to anyone who is facing the death of someone close to them, or ever will, or anyone who just wants to understand better before facing their own end of life. Christine Andreae, writing about her own experiences as a hospice volunteer, shows us that there are no hard and fast rules about what you should or shouldn't do when helping people face the end of a life. Tears are okay, but so is laughter. Questions are okay, even if no one knows the answer.

When Evening Comes Helps You Cope with the Dying Process

Sooner or later, we all lose someone very important to us. Reading this book won't make that process easier, but it will help you develop a deeper understand of the process of dying--and how it affects all those who know the dying person differently.This book provides an extremely personal insight of how, even as a stranger, one can be supportive of someone who is dying. It's a sad story, of course, but one that is rich in uncovering the meaning of life.It really makes you stop and recognize what's important--and what isn't and remember just how precious and short life really is.

When Evening Comes

Christine Andreae has done a masterful job of letting us in on the details of life as a hospice worker. We see the mundane routines and the difficult relationships as well as the deep stirrings evoked by connections with souls at a turning point. The book's rhythms keep the reader thoroughly engaged. There is no sugar coating here. There is an abundance of honesty and soul. Anyone involved with death and dying (isn't this all of us?) should read this book

Excellent depiction of end of life care

This book provides the reader with an poignant story of the author's experience as a hospice volunteer. Christine Andreae provides the reader with a real look at end of life care. I think it would be a great resource for anyone wanting to volunteer with hospice patients and for anyone who has had to deal with someone with a terminal illness