Special Report

ON THE COVER: WORLD OF HOSPICE

Hospice patient care coordinator Nathan Shiovitz, right, helped Jennifer Holtzman and her dad, Lou, reconcile in time to enjoy each other before his death in 2008.

A1o r.

Jewish Hospice & Chaplaincy Network marks first decade.

Judith Doner Berne
Special to the Jewish News

didn't know hospice was for Jews."
That's the impression that Cheryl
Weiss of West Bloomfield had 12 years
ago as she tried to manage the care of her
dying husband, active 8-year-old twins
and a full-time teaching job with the
Detroit Public Schools.
Even when a sister-in-law told her oth-

erwise, she resisted because "it felt like
I was saying I was giving up." It was her
husband who said: "Anything that will
make it easier for you."
"So many burdens," she says, "were
taken off my shoulder" by Rabbi E.B.
"Bunny" Freedman and social worker
Barb Haddad — two of the people she
now works with at Jewish Hospice &
Chaplaincy Network (JHCN).
"I know that my husband lived longer

because hospice was there':
Weiss says.
He had talked of suicide,
but it never came up again
during his 13 months at
home with hospice care.
And though at one time
she was afraid to have him
die at home, she says, "now
I have so much peace with
that. When I'm in the room

that he died in, I sense his presence
there?'
"Dying is hard," says Freedman,
JHCN executive director. "Dying
with dignity, respect and comfort
is even harder when people make
bad decisions. JHCN is working its
hardest to help people made good
decisions?'

David Techner,

hospice chair

Never Alone on page Al2

April 2 2009

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