Author Rick Schneider

Simple Human Compassion:
The End of Life Craves Touch Not Technology

Have you ever wondered what specifically takes place if you, or someone you love, were to experience hospice care? Honestly, during an unthinkable crisis, wouldn’t it be a relief if your wants and your fears were among the top priorities being addressed? And wouldn’t you like to know that the attention includes both you and your loved ones?

Author Rick Schneider

That's Good Grease

Why do some people contact hospice when a family member is in a serious medical crisis and some people don't? Is it the fear of the unknown What happens if you call hospice? What does hospice care actually involve, anyway?

IN THE NEWS

As someone who saw superb hospice care in action when my father died in 2012, I am a big fan. But I also understand the fears that many of us have about the end of life. Rick’s book can help. His stories recounting his 24-year service record as a hospice volunteer does what any good therapy does -- it illuminates through storytelling and puts on the page the stories of his experiences with hospice and how such care can ease the final days that all of us will eventually face. Simple Human Compassion reminded me of my favorite quote, from Joan Didion. It’s the first sentence in her late 1960s essay collection, The White Album. She says, "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." What Rick’s book does is tell us stories that will help us understand, confront, and accept the powerful experience of a loved one’s death.

Richard Campbell
Professor Emeritus
Department of Media, Journalism & Film
Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056
Stats+Stories: www.statsandstories.net
oxfordobserver.org

This is a brilliant, heart-warming, and insightful book full of stories from his experiences as a Hospice Volunteer and as a Hospice Patient-Contact Volunteer, as well as from memories that were shared with him by family members that had a loved one that was cared for in Hospice. This book highlights the care and compassion that Hospice offers to the dying and their family members.

Maureen P. Keeley, Ph.D.
Professor of Communication
Texas State University

AUTHOR

Rick Schneider
He won the FairHoPe Volunteer of the Year Award in 2001 and the OHPCO (Now LeadingAge Ohio) Volunteers are the Heart of Ohio Award in 2002.