What is Dignity?

"Though his mind betrayed him, they were able to maintain his dignity by giving him jobs each day that kept him busy and gave him purpose"

Dignity. This is a word that is being thrown around so much in light of the upcoming election, and one that is defined quite subjectively. Some believe dignity is giving someone the option to choose death when life gets too painful, and others define dignity as a loving, dedicated response to the situation at hand.

Many might peg Alzheimer's as a disease that takes away your life. That it takes away your purpose, that it makes life not worth living. This patient's life was not devastated by his disease, but rerouted to appreciate what could still be accomplished in his new world each day. While it was not the world you or I see each day, nevertheless it was a world where he woke up and had a job to complete to inspire those who worked around him.

 We don't always understand why things happen, and while none of us definitively know what awaits us on the other side, all we can control is how we treasure the gift of life in its final days.

There is something so beautiful about peace in the final moments of life. The stories about how many people the patient touched, how many years of marriage treasured, how many children left behind... I got a picture of not the patient with Alzheimer's, but the person in the bed loved and cherished who left a positive mark on this world.

Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found was blind but now I see.

I sang as a prayer and with passion and hope for those left behind. I sang because in this moment we were honoring the life this patient lived and the dignity of the soul that had departed right in front of us. I sang to maintain the dignity, the honor and respect, of that moment. Sometimes there just aren't words that can be said.


There was no longer a heart beat, color was gone, and the tears streamed. So I sang. And God's presence filled the room as he took his child home. 



There are some patients and some circumstances that leave a mark on your heart. This man demonstrated what it meant to live a dignified life. He was empowered by his family to do simply that: live. May we all strive to inspire those around us by not seeing what we don't have, but making the most of what we do have, through good and bad. 

To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven. -Ecclesiastes 3:1