Volunteering Integral Part of Life For Wuesthoff Brevard Hospice & Palliative Care’s Lyman Rowan
By Space Coast Daily // August 6, 2020
Rockledge resident has devoted 25 years to volunteer hospice work
ABOVE VIDEO: Losing a loved one is always incredibly difficult and thanks to Wuesthoff Hospice the process is made much easier with volunteers like Lyman Rowan. Meet a Central Florida Humanitarian and Sara Beil Executive Director of Brevard’s world class hospice care.
COMPASSION, RESPECT, INTEGRITY AND THE DESIRE TO HELP DEFINE THE QUALITIES OF HOSPICE VOLUNTEERS.
Lyman Rowan sees volunteering for Wuesthoff Brevard Hospice and Palliative Care an integral part of his life.
“I consider it the same as breathing,” he said.
The Rockledge resident has devoted 25 years to volunteer hospice work, and despite the heartbreak that is part and parcel of volunteering for an end-of-life program, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Rowan has volunteered for Wuesthoff Hospice since 2004.
When asked to visit a patient, he never hesitates to follow through with the request, traveling many, miles across Brevard to visit as many as six patients in one day.
Rowan never gives a second thought to mileage and time. It is the patient who comes first.
He began volunteering after hours and on weekends while he was still working as human resources manager. After retirement, he was able to spend even more time with hospice patients.
A survivor of four near-death experiences, Rowan believes his past has prepared him for his present as a hospice volunteer.
“It gives you a different perspective,” he said.
He visits patients once a week, staying from one to three hours.
It’s irrelevant whether patients are living at Wuesthoff’s Dr. Jey Pillai Center for Hospice Care, at assisted living facilities or nursing homes, at their own homes, or even homeless. Rowan is there for them, wherever they happen to live.
It is often up to Rowan to gently guide the patients into checking off the must-dos before the end.
“There is no need to play games,” he said. “I help them get unfinished business resolved.”
“It is often very intensive.”
Patients’ needs are of the utmost importance to Rowan and he displays this through his compassion and commitment to hospice.
“I see it as a natural gift,” he said.
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