Twice a week, 93-year-old Dennis Milton gets in his car and makes the half hour drive from his home to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Well groomed and dressed in a neat suit, he’s already someone you want to say hello to. When you actually speak to the man, that’s when you get to love him.
Dennis lost his wife back in the eighties. As she lay ill, she made a dying wish that he find something to fill up the time he would now face alone. Dennis started volunteering and never looked back.
I met Dennis on a Thursday morning, before he made his regular trip to the palliative care floor. It’s a quiet unit where flowers and family photos adorn the windowsills. The average length of stay here is less than three weeks. Undeterred, Dennis and the 13 other palliative care volunteers come with stoic dedication to make sure every moment is as comfortable as possible for the patients and their families.
In a place where nothing is taken for granted, the meaning of seemingly simple gestures runs deep. These volunteers go room to room, holding hands, talking, listening. Chats about the weather, chats about the meaning of life. Anything goes. All volunteers here receive special training and are considered a valued part of the palliative care team.
I met with two other palliative care volunteers, Alma and Karen and followed them through the unit. They checked in with staff first to see where they could be the most useful, and then made their way to those rooms. Faces change quickly here, but the need for comfort in extraordinarily difficult times never does.
Dennis spends about two and a half hours on the unit, offering a hand, a shoulder and an ear before getting ready to go home. Having married again, his time is now filled up with more than just volunteering. Even so, he faithfully continues his work in palliative care. He says his late wife’s dying wish, has now become his personal commitment.
