Where does a retired English professor go to find meaning in his later years? Mr. Rose chose to be a hospice volunteer, a journey that took him down the back roads of Lee County, Alabama, into the sometimes gritty home environments of hospice patients. Mr. Rose calls it the "we of me", that sense of connecting to some larger network of human existence. His memoir captures the patient's simple need to have some one to talk to, listen to, and just be with. Mr. Rose describes the awkward intimacy of relating to patients, making small talk with their caregivers, while trying to respond to their need for "companioning." In the Midst of Life is a rare and detailed look into the experience of hospice volunteering.
--Amanda Graves, former social worker at Capital Hospice and Hospice of D.C.
