Help for the Holidays

Everything seemed perfectly normal in the Brown household on that August day in 2015. Mara took the four kids shopping for school supplies while Steve worked; after dinner, the family went to the pool and then watched a meteor shower. That night, at about one am,...
Hospice Austin Chaplains – Holding a Sacred Space

Hospice Austin Chaplains – Holding a Sacred Space

The end of a person’s life can so easily be consumed by chaos – pain, fear, grief, denial. Hospice Austin chaplains meet patients where they are, and, in the process of listening, bring comfort, peace, and invite patients to reflect on and define the meaning of their...

Pet Therapy

Several years ago, a patient was readmitted to Hospice Austin’s Christopher House late on a Friday afternoon. When he had been there before, he’d met Hospice Austin volunteer Rusty and her therapy dog, Faraday, a loving one-eyed white lab. As soon as this patient was...
Camp Erin Central Texas

Camp Erin Central Texas

Rachel* lost her brother in an accident. Sandra lost her stepfather to suicide. Marty’s mom died of cancer and a few weeks later, his father died from complications of a heart attack. These are just some of the stories of the kids who attended Camp Erin Central Texas....

Honoring Madelyn’s Wish

In February 2017, 16-year-old Madelyn Shoales was diagnosed with a rare type of brain cancer. She underwent surgery to remove the tumor, followed by six weeks of radiation. Two weeks after her surgery, she returned to school to finish out her sophomore year. Madelyn...