Miami Living Magazine features the best Miami has to offer. Click on any magazine below and enjoy. You can download our free app on iTunes. Ideal for iPad and iPhone users.
Issue link: https://digital.miamilivingmagazine.com/i/1039286
What does a hospice volunteer do? As an in-patient hospice volunteer, Torrey is assigned a patient, then sets a schedule with them to visit once or a couple of times a week for about an hour, until they pass away. "You hang out with them, and you do whatever they want. Some people want to play games, some people just want to watch TV with you, some people just want somebody physically there. When you have somebody who wants a volunteer, it's most likely because they don't have any family with them while they're dying, and they don't want to be alone…. I get assigned patients and then once they pass, I get a new patient. Or sometimes you'll get calls like, 'Somebody is actively dying, will you go hold their hand because they don't have any family members that can be with them right now?'" The one time she received this request, it didn't end how she expected. "They thought the woman was actively dying, and I sat with her for about 5 hours, and she didn't die," she laughs. "It's funny to laugh about that stuff, you have to have hospice humor, which only people in hospice know. But yeah, I kept thinking she was dying but then she wasn't. I called them, I was like, 'It's 2 o' clock in the morning, I have to go home.'"