Lifechanging Experiences: Volunteering at Hadassah’s Hospice

This is the first of an ongoing series on volunteering at the Ina and Jack Kay Hospice at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus.

“Life, though precious, is a gift to be relinquished and returned. Sooner or later, we must bid farewell to the persons and things that we love.” – WHY ME? Coping with Grief, Loss and Change by Pesach Krauss and Morrie Goldfischer

When I retired this year from teaching, I was looking for a meaningful volunteer experience. I decided to volunteer at the Hadassah Medical Organization’s Gandel Rehabilitation Center, working with soldiers who had been injured in the latest war. (I blogged about my experience in December 2024.)

My job was to help those patients who wanted to improve their English, since I had spent the last 23 years in Israel as an English teacher. Then my husband got sick and I had a recurrence of a hip infection.

Thank God, my husband is in remission, and my infection is being suppressed with antibiotics. I was ready to return to volunteer work. I spoke to the volunteer coordinator at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus, Michal Fleisher, a wonderful young woman. The Gandel Rehabilitation Center didn’t have a current need for English teachers, but there was an opening at the hospice.

Michal said, “I don’t know if this is for you. Not everyone can volunteer or work in hospice care.” I told her that I would like to try it. I was looking for work with a warm group of people in a place where I could help. As one of the volunteers so brilliantly said to me in describing what it was like volunteering at the hospice, “It’s real!”

After a month of volunteering in hospice care once a week for four hours each time, I decided that it was important for me to write about some of the people I meet there, who consistently teach me something wise and meaningful. They help me to appreciate every moment of my life, with all the challenges I face. I am grateful for this work and I hope that I will be able to continue doing it for a long time. It has been a lifechanging experience for me.

Timna (not her real name)
I met “Timna” on my first day. She was in her early 40s and had made aliyah to Israel from Russia the same year that my family and I immigrated from America. We began talking and realized that we had many interesting ideas and experiences in common.

Timna came to Israel with her mother, her aunt and her aunt’s son. They left Russia because, after generations of antisemitic acts against her family and other Jews, they finally had enough. We talked about the challenges of making aliyah – adjusting to a different language, culture and food, and finding work.

Timna had worked at one point for Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security as part of a group that visited farms and kibbutzim to check on the treatment of animals. “I just thought it was interesting that Israelis don’t know how to stand in line or wait their turn and yet the cows on the farms all know how to walk single file and in an orderly way!” We both burst out laughing over that observation.

Timna also worked in Israel’s Social Services Department, as part of a team that helped people to receive the benefits they were entitled to get. Her job was to translate from Russian to Hebrew for those who couldn’t speak Hebrew. “We are like a pie. We each have our jobs and, together, we make up the whole pie. With me sick now, a piece of the pie is missing.” I am sure that she was sorely missed.

Timna loved all things to do with the author J.R. Tolkien and, especially, The Lord of the Ring series. She had just ordered magnets of the main characters to put on the bulletin board near her bed. They did not arrive before she passed away.

One of the stories that Timna told me was that she was once on a bus on her way to work. It was early in the morning and she had fallen asleep and missed her stop. Suddenly, she woke up, startled and walked quickly to the driver. She told him he had to stop and let her off, she had slept through her stop! He told her that he could only drop her at the next stop. Later that day she learned that, at the stop right after she got off, a terrorist had boarded and blown himself up, taking many passengers’ lives with his.

I thought to myself, “By suddenly waking up, Timna had been given the gift of another 20 years of life – not  enough, but still another 20 years!” I didn’t share those thoughts with her.

I learned so much from Timna: how to be brave when you are facing pain and suffering; how to keep your sense of humor, even though you realize that you are nearing the end; and how not to give up. When the physical therapist came into her room, Timna, who at that point could not get out of bed on her own, told him, “Yes, come. It is always important to exercise and to strengthen your muscles.”

I met Timna only twice, as I only volunteer one day a week. She passed away the next week before I returned. I had hoped that we would have more time to talk. What an honor it was for me to be in her presence, even for only a short period of time. “Baruch dayan Ha’emet” we say when we hear of a death. “Blessed is the True Judge.”

For more information on the Ina and Jack Kay Hospice at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus, please visit this site.

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The author does not speak on behalf of Hadassah and the views expressed herein are the author’s own and not necessarily those of Hadassah.