“Sherry is in process”.    As my classmates and I settled into our seats for our evening self-help class at a local shop, our instructor offered only this short phrase to provide us with some explanation for the loud wailing that was coming from the corner of the room.  Seated on the floor, rocking back and forth, a young woman produced powerful sobs, seemingly oblivious to the activity occurring in the rest of the room. New to this group, I had not yet met Sherry, nor was I familiar with the term “in process”.  To me, she appeared to be […]

“I don’t know why I keep dropping things.  Maybe it’s my condition.” I had a hospice patient once who fascinated me with her lack of desire to know about her illness, a neurodegenerative disease that was stealing her muscle control bit by bit.  When I visited each week, she would point out new things she was noticing: the loss of muscle in her hand, her difficulty holding a coffee cup, an increasing need to clear her throat as she talked. And with each new change, she shook her head and said, “I don’t know why this is happening to me. […]