At Jansen Hospice and Palliative Care, we are often reminded that the final chapters of life can be the most meaningful. In the stillness of those moments, there is space for presence, for reflection, and for gratitude.
One of our longtime volunteers, Tina Stout, shared a memory that captures the beauty of what we strive to provide: the chance for each person to live well until the very end. A memory that is about moments that carry weight. Moments that teach us something about being alive.
The Gift of Awareness in At Home Hospice Care
Tina sat beside a patient, a woman she refers to as Charlotte, who was living with pancreatic cancer. Charlotte did not have many weeks left, and she knew it. And yet what she offered that day was not fear or sorrow. It was awareness.
They were mid-conversation when Charlotte stopped, caught by the sight of a cherry tree in bloom. What she said next stayed with Tina for years.
A Moment That Changed Everything
Can’t watch the video? Here’s a transcript of Tina’s story:
“Hello, I’m Tina Stout. In one of my first years as a Jansen volunteer, I was sitting on a park bench with a patient—I’ll call her Charlotte, though that wasn’t her real name. Charlotte had pancreatic cancer and knew she did not have many more weeks to live.
It was a beautiful afternoon in the spring, and we were talking. I can’t remember about what. Suddenly, Charlotte stopped herself mid-sentence and pointed to a beautiful blooming cherry tree. ‘Look,’ she said. ‘Look at that tree. I don’t think anything can be more beautiful than when you think you may be seeing it for the last time.’
Together, we looked at that tree, and at other trees, and at the flowers. We watched mothers pushing strollers and listened to the train that rolled by behind us. And all of it, if not for the last time, was close to the last time for Charlotte.
We at Jansen try to help every patient have a life well lived. But it became clear to me that they are also guiding us. They remind me every time to embrace life and try to live well for myself every day. It’s an amazing gift that you have for us.”
More Than a Westchester Home Hospice Care Volunteer
What Tina’s story shows is that hospice care is about relationships. It is about bearing witness to the full experience of life, including its end. Tina did not go into that afternoon expecting to be changed, but she was.
Moments like these do not require grand gestures or perfect words. They just need space. At Jansen, we work every day to create that space within our Westchester County home hospice care services, so people can look at a cherry tree and see it as if for the first time.
Our patients are not just receiving care. They are also teaching us how to live. They remind us to slow down, to pay attention, and to find beauty in what we often overlook.
