Drops in the Ocean of Caring: What Home Care and Hospice Mean to Millions

Val J. Halamandaris President of NAHC and founder of the Caring Institute in this l997 photo with the self described "homecare and hospice nurse" who founded the Missionaries of Charity to provide home care to aged, infirm, disabled and dying people all around the globe.

Revered by millions as a living saint even as she walked the earth, Mother Teresa’s legacy, great love, and powerful example— the kindness she showed and work among the sick and the dying she did and the sisters and brothers of her order continue — are reflected each day in the work of home care and hospice caregivers and volunteers. Most would balk at being equated with such a figure as Mother Teresa, towering in her humble simplicity; but, indeed, that is how she described herself in a conversation with NAHC President Val J. Halamandaris: as a home care and hospice nurse.

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Much of these caregivers’ work goes unnoticed, unsung, and may feel inconsequential. In his book, “Something Beautiful for God,” journalist and author Malcolm Muggeridge quoted Mother discussing this very thing concerning the work of the Missionaries of Charity. “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean,” she said. “But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” So too, although often unrecognized by society at large, the care and services provided by home care and hospice caregivers are vital to those who receive them, many of whom otherwise would be neglected and left in the shadows of decline and illness.

Mother Teresa told Muggeridge, “The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted, uncared for, and deserted by everybody. The greatest evil is the lack of love and charity, the terrible indifference towards one’s neighbor who lives at the roadside assaulted by exploitation, corruption, poverty, and disease.” Here we present a glimpse of how home care and hospice caregivers of all kinds are connecting with our nation’s frail elderly, infirm, and disabled individuals — not only in a sterile sense of “health care” or “personal care” but in shared humanity and friendship — and changing their lives for the better.