Elmwood Terrace Blog

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This week as the story of the horrific mining accident in Turkey unfolded we are reminded about how one’s world can change in an instant. The faces of those families waiting outside the mine hoping against all odds now that their loved one is still alive and will be pulled out of that hell hole any minute now. These same faces we saw after 9/11, after Katrina, Joplin and Fukushima. We see these faces at hospitals or “Care Homes” hoping for miracles that our loved one will somehow emerge from this accident, this illness, this old age or this tragedy alive and whole. It seems more often than not those miracles never occur and we are left with loss, often great great loss. Such is life, such is big risk big reward….such is the price of love

As I approached the anniversaries of my parents deaths… you know those times when our brains seem to stop and cast full attention back to those sad days when we had hope that they might get better, that they might survive and might be there for us to wrap our arms around and say “I Love You” once again? I am struck by the human condition and how often in such times we have regret. Why? I think we probably all know the answer.

In my job I witness pain and suffering and yes death all of the time. We have people die in my facility on Hospice. We have families with that sadness as they say goodbye. For all, I wish they may  find a way to alleviate not the sadness but the regret.

Kevin Kirkpatrick is Director of Community Relations

at Elmwood Terrace in Surburban Chicago