Literature Review

Healing hearts: How palliative care staff reunited a father with his daughters after nearly 40 years apart The Daily Scan - Cancer; by Sondi Bruner; 11/25/24 Leah Duval and Tanya Ellis don’t have many childhood memories of their father. They recall fragments, like his bright smile and building snowmen in the backyard. And then one day, when they were three and five years old, Glenn Ellis disappeared completely. ​As the girls grew up, they learned their father had schizophrenia, which they guessed played a large role in his disappearance. ... The family searched for years in the 1980s and never found him. The sisters had no choice but to move forward with their lives, though they never gave up hope that their father was still out there. ... Then, on May 14th 2024, nearly 40 years after their father vanished from their hometown in Ontario, Tanya received an unexpected phone call from across the country. It was from Siobhan Gallagher, a social worker at May’s Place Hospice in Vancouver, BC. She had a patient named Glenn Ellis, and he was looking for his daughters. [Click on the title's link to read this story.] ... “People can hold onto grudges for their entire life and they don’t allow healing to happen,” says Tanya. “Have an open heart and an open mind. Just let things go, because we’re just all humans trying to do the best we can in this world.”

5 behaviors that demonstrate highly effective leadership Fast Company - Leadership Now;  by Shirley Davis; 11/25/24 Have you ever worked for a leader who made a mistake, a bad decision, or didn’t know the answer to something and, rather than admit it, they deflected it by blaming someone else, justifying it, or acting like it didn’t happen? This lack of accountability happens all too often in the workplace and it undermines trust, engagement, and communication. Leadership accountability is at the heart of any organization’s ability to achieve optimal performance and build a strong culture. Workers today place a higher premium on their leaders walking the talk and being more accountable. At a time when we continue to experience accelerated change, increased complexities, growing pressures, and competing priorities, demonstrating accountability as a leader couldn’t be more critical. In fact, accountability was one of eight key factors driving positive work-related outcomes according to McKinsey & Company’s The State of Organizations 2023 report. The report also found that organizations with high leadership accountability tend to be healthier. 

No One Dies Alone: new Parker hospital program offers companionship to those at the end of life Parker Chronicle; by Haley Lena; 11/27/24 Katherine Wiley, a volunteer at AdventHealth Parker, was in the hospital’s emergency department when she saw first-hand how being alongside a stranger during their final moments of life can have a profound impact on those around them. Wiley sat with an elderly woman who was dying with no one around. The patient’s sons were trying to get to the hospital from Colorado Springs but didn’t make it in time. “When they got there, I told them that I had been with their mom so she was not alone and they were very grateful,” said Wiley. Wiley shared this story with the CEO of the hospital, Michael Goebel, at the annual volunteer luncheon last year, and the following week, the No One Dies Alone program was being set up. “We can provide companionship to patients in the dying process who are truly alone,” said Wiley. “In doing so, (it) provides a gift of respect and dignity to another human being at the end of life.” The volunteers of the program are called “compassionate companions.” They do not provide medical care, but they assist with comfort care measures – they sit beside the patient, hold their hands, play soothing music or read to the patients. For as many circumstances there are that lead a person to be hospitalized, there are also as many reasons why a patient is alone. The patient could have outlived other family members and friends, said Wiley, or are estranged from their family. It could be because the patients themselves don’t want to have their family see them die, but don’t want to be alone. Or they could be a John/Jane Doe who was in an accident. “We want to be there for them, whatever those reasons are,” said Wiley. “This sort of thing feeds my soul.”

How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days. ~ John Burroughs

You treat a disease, you win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you, you'll win, no matter what the outcome. ~ Patch Adams

I can't change you and you can't change me, but together we can work to change the world!  ~ Germany Kent

If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one. ~ Dolly Parton

We all require and want respect, man or woman, black or white. It’s our basic human right. ~ Aretha Franklin

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. ~  Aristotle

Rarely are opportunities presented to you in the perfect way, in a nice little box with a yellow bow on top. ... Opportunities, the good ones, they're messy and confusing and hard to recognize. They're risky. They challenge you. ~ Susan Wojcicki, a creator of Google in 1998 and CEO of YouTube 2014-2023

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ~ Mark Twain

I'd rather regret the risks that didn't work out than the chances I didn't take at all. ~ Simone Biles, Olympic medalist, gymnastics, 2016, 2021, 2024 

I wonder if my first breath was as soul-stirring to my mother as her last breath was to me. ~ Lisa Goich-Andreadis, 14 Days: A Mother, A Daughter, A Two-Week Goodbye