Director of Spiritual Care Jim Andrews
I have been to a lot of Suncoast Hospice Community Memorial Services, but every time I leave feeling profoundly impacted and grateful. To see busy hospice professionals taking time out of their day to come and pitch in with taking down names or directing traffic or bringing refreshments for after the service. To see people from our community of all ages – from toddlers to the very elderly and everyone in between – coming together under one roof for a common purpose: to remember, to laugh, to cry, to honor. To witness the hugs and the long talks with survivors when they are reunited with members of the hospice team who cared for their loved ones. It is inspiring because it always becomes abundantly clear that what binds us all together is not just loss and grief – its love.
We grieve because we loved.
We grieve because we know that life is fragile and impermanent and unpredictable, and we choose to open our hearts up to love anyway. And it is in those thin spaces, those real life moments, that we come together to celebrate our courageous capacity to love and the indelible imprint it leaves on our souls.
Join us for our next Community Memorial Service this Thursday at the Crystal Beach Community Church.
Have a great week, everyone!
Jim