Etiquette for Visitors: Honoring the One You Love  

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•   Be in this room as if it were a sacred place to bring your love and healing.

•   Be a gift to the one you love. Speak softly to those around you.

•   If you need to socialize or use cell phone, go out in the hall, away from hearing distance. •    Also, discuss treatment plans down the hall, not in the room.

•   Near the end of life, hearing is still present. Make this room a place of peace, an atmosphere of beauty and hope. Bring peace and well-being to the bedside.

•   Give your full attention to the wonderful person in bed. Seek for ways to be a blessing. It might be shared memories, it might be meditation, a dream, a gentle embrace.

•   Sitting in silence, reflecting on a phrase from poem or scripture is a great way to give support, a healing for both of you. Be a silent lamp post.

•   Refrain from forcing food or conversation. Be a loving witness to a life well lived. Express your gratitude when appropriate or in the silence of your heart.

•   Discover ways to make the room beautiful. Favorite colors, sounds, fabrics. Even if your beloved friend cannot see or hear well, creating beauty calms everyone present and offers dignity to the one moving onward from this life.

•   Be thankful that you have the opportunity to love your friend to the very end. Honor her as your treasure. By this, you celebrate her life.

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Our death is our wedding with eternity… Oh bird of my soul, fly away now… Rumi