By: Jasmin Peralta, SSC

Sr. Jasmin is a Filipino sister who is on mission with the Columbans in Chunchon, Korea. Here she tells of her life “accompanying” the sick and dying on their journey. She does this through her special connection with the Hospice.

Hospice for the Dying
When I first came to join the hospice team in St. Columban’s Clinic in Chunchon last April, our two paid nurses kidded me about taking the night calls when the sisters in charge is away. I firmly told them that I would not, besides not being trained in the medical field, I can’t bring them back to life if ever they die.

Alone with the Dying
But this very night when I took the call, I know I just couldn’t refuse this poor creature. She saw alone with her dying husband and had already made several calls to friends and her pastor to be with her in this moment of grief as she waited the death of her husband. None of them could come. Her last hope was to call us from the hospice, hoping we could be with her and maybe even cry with her.

Unholy Hour
I wanted to call one of our hospice nurses  but since it was the most unholy hour of the morning, and knowing them to be devoted mothers to their families, I didn’t. I tried calling one from the team who lives near the convent but I never got any reply so I thought of going alone. But the sister who got the call suggested that I shouldn’t go alone. So I asked one of our pre-novices to come with me to which she obligingly agrees. We were lucky to get a taxi, and I explained in my best Korean that I wasn’t sure where the house was but I could direct him as we went along.

Distress
When we got into the house the wife had broken down, while the daughter –in – law and two grandchildren were crying. So we sat beside the dying man and started to pray.

No Cash
Though I know that all we could do was to wait for his death, my instincts were telling me to do something to save him and bring him back to life. I even suggested at one point if we could bring him to the nearest hospital but their medical insurance wasn’t available and there was no cash on hand so there was nothing we could do but wait. As I silently cried beside him, my prayer to God was to relieve him and his family from the suffering of his terminal illness.

I Held his Hand
It was after 3 a. m. when I held his hand and started praying the Rosary using our fingers since there wasn’t any rosary at hand. I tried to moisten his dry mouth with water and wiped the cold sweat must be the same sweat Jesus sweated out in the garden of Gethsemane.

Sorrowful Mystery
It was the second sorrowful mystery when he made a deep sigh and took his last breath. It was over, he had gone to meet his Creator.

I Bound his Body
No one in the family seemed to know what should happen next. I once saw how the corpse was laid out and remembered how it was done. So I asked the wife to put the funeral cloths on her dead husband, then I bound the ankles, then the knees, and arms, and then I had a cloth around his head. Once all the binding was done, we covered the corpse with a piece of white sheet and waited until the people from the funeral parlor arrived.

It is Finished
We prayed once more for the repose of his soul while the rest of the family were wailing. At around 4 a.m. the pastor came and some family friends started coming

It was time for us to leave.