Hello,
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you, Petra, for your involvement in accompanying my father to the very end of his life.
Petra, you have been a great support to me from the beginning.
I mean right after I informed you at the first meeting about my dad's health condition, which at that time was the end of his cancer care.
The way you discussed with me at our first information meeting in detail what our current support options were, both from social care and home health care. How you also actively sought out my needs as a carer, which is no less important at the time.
For your decisions and recommendations you also wanted to know my ideas about how I imagine such care, what I expect from it. At the same time, you also wanted to know the needs and ideas of the father himself, how he feels in this new role and how he could feel so that he is as comfortable as possible in this role.
In the light of what you have found, you have given me comprehensive information and advice on the current options, also taking into account the fact that there is no need to take on more responsibility than is strictly necessary and than the situation requires. All of your advice was directed towards one goal, that we all be as comfortable as possible in the situation at hand, and in fact, that we all feel as comfortable as possible in the situation at hand.
Given your experience, you then helped me to put together a great and clear plan of possible care, with a prediction of the progression of the disease. Who all can help us, when and in what way, what needs to be arranged, who can be contacted. You have also helped me with the selection of specific organizations and possible services. You have been a mentor to me whenever I needed it, whenever I asked, whenever I was unsure about a decision.
On an ongoing basis (throughout the home care period) you were also incredibly interested in the situation at home, how I was feeling, how our care was going and if I needed any advice or help with anything. Often all I needed at any given time was your kind word or words of approval that this and how I was doing it was actually the best thing. You fully empathized with my feelings, my fears, my needs.
In light of our story, I would venture to characterize your skills at the level of the ultimate professional in home/palliative/social/psychological care of the dying and their families. In fact, you treat the families and loved ones of the sick as if they were the closest of your family and as if we have known each other since time immemorial.
The end is always inevitable in these cases, only with your help was the end somehow actually "very nice" for everyone. Maybe, and I'm sure it's because of that, I'm dealing with my dad's passing a little easier.
Words of thanks can never fully express this anyway, I just don't have as deep a hole in my heart as when my mom died in the hospital, whose passing and how she left I just don't agree with to this day, but it can't be undone.
Petra, thank you for this opportunity to get to know you, work with you and listen to you. Petra, thank you for being you.
Martina
