Volunteering at hospice brings both tears and rewards

He can't say why he chose it.

All he wanted to do was serve others. So Todd Betzer, 72 of Marion, found himself volunteering at a hospice.

Just like many others - including almost 200 volunteers with Mercy Medical Center and 80 at UnityPoint Health-St. Luke's Hospital - Betzer has chosen to endure the countless tears, goodbyes and emotional roller-coaster rides that comes with being around a hospice.

Whether it's a hand to hold, a voice to fill the silence or just a shoulder to cry on, Betzer is there for patients and their families at UnityPoint Hospice at St. Luke's.

'For me it's a tremendous honor and a privilege to be a part of this unit and to be able to visit with patients during such an important time in their life and as well as their family members and friends,” Betzer said.

Hospices that receive support from Medicare are required to get a percentage of their patient care hours provided by volunteers.

While the majority of volunteers are simply there for companionship, they also may provide respite care and pet therapy, run errands, do office or administrative work or even become 11th-hour volunteers - those who sit with patients and families during the final hours of life.

Mary Clapp, Hospice of Mercy volunteer coordinator, said many people are inspired to start volunteering because they have had a personal experience with a death or have seen the benefits of hospice care. Because of that experience, she said, sometimes volunteers are better equipped to recognize or deal with changes in patients.

'A lot of our volunteers have experienced some grief or loss in their life. They have found that after they have worked through a lot of that grieving process, that it is very fulfilling for them to help other families navigate,” Clapp said.

Even with experience, being around illness and death can take an emotional toll. Michelle Hilton-Moes of Cedar Rapids, a Hospice of Mercy volunteer, said she cried in her car every day after leaving the first patient she was assigned.

Hilton-Moes said people ask her how she is able to volunteer with hospice patients because it is 'so sad.” But she said being a hospice volunteer is fulfilling.

'It's so rewarding in all the right ways,” Hilton-Moes said. 'You always think ‘my situation is nothing compared to what they're going through.' So just to lift a little bit of that burden off (the family's) shoulders, that's what it's all about, I think.”

Hilton-Moes currently visits with one of the patients she's assigned, Margaret Reinier, 100, at a senior living center each week to spend time talking to her and comforting her. Reinier's daughter, Linda Nazemian, said Hilton-Moes has been good for Reinier because most of her friends have passed and Nazemian lives far away.

'Oh I think it's great,” Nazemian said. 'She's a real positive, smiling person that brings an added companionship.”

Despite losing patients she has become close with and witnessing more deaths than most, Hilton-Moes feels like she has no other choice but to volunteer.

'I just feel like I was meant to do this. This is kind of my calling.”

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