Palliative Care vs. Hospice: The Conversation Families Keep Not Having

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 06:00:00 -0500

The woman’s name was Doris, and she was in the cafeteria of a regional hospital in southeastern Kentucky, sitting with a cup of coffee she hadn’t touched. Her husband Harold was upstairs in an oncology appointment, and she was working her way through a stack of papers someone on the care team had handed her on the way in.

This was maybe fifteen years ago, when I was still at my second congregation in Hazard. I had stopped in to check on Harold and found Doris instead, which is how pastoral visiting often works. You plan to see the sick person and you end up in the kitchen with the one who isn’t sleeping.

Terminal Illness on Sunday Evening Review

Palliative Care vs. Hospice: The Conversation Families Keep Not Having