| The Family's Story of Serious Illness | |
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"I told him 'I love you. Thank you. You can go. I love you.' And then he died. It was perfect. It was everything we had done. It was like music ending" |
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"My mother is a lion. She is strong and beautiful and has lots of friends and they make each other laugh. My mother and I are so close that we are friends forever," a 34 year old daughter writes of her 74 year old mom who is coping with cancer. "My mother loves to eat and sews beautifully--she even made my wedding dress." This drawing shows the mother as a lioness protecting her grandchildren and letting her grown children gain strength by standing on her back. Her husband is on her tail. The drawing was created by the daughter as a portrait of her mother. |
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"I had a chance to hear how [my sister] and my brother feel about having to help me with my care, and this has been good for all of us." |
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| This drawing overlay of tissue paper created by the ten year old son of a patient with liver disease. "My dad is the big gorilla of our family, he is always monkeying around. My mom is on her tree trying to help, and I am swaying on a vine trying to get to my dad so I can help too. We live in a jungle." |
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"She and I need to talk about what to do if one of us dies. This makes me sad, but I know what she wants and she knows what I want and this makes me feel comforted." |
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This picture is by a 73 year old woman with heart failure who lives in a wheelchair and takes care of her 83 year old husband who was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Although she claimed she had not drawn a picture for over 60 years, she drew this image of the connection between her husband and herself. In her head she drew a circle representing her husband's brain tumor -- she carries his pain with her always. |
| To the Patient's/Clinician's Story... | |