Final Respects

Cyril Miller

From the VA Puget Sound Health Care System Community Living Center (CLC), Cyril Miller writes:

"Last Wednesday I was sitting in this chair having a massage and I noticed the chaplain coming up the hallway in somewhat of a rush.
He went into the third ward and was there for about 15 or 20 minutes. Then I noticed the gurney, with a flag draped over the remains of one of our fallen brothers, who had just passed.

As they stepped into the hallway, I also noticed the complete silence.
There was not a noise anywhere on the floor.
The charge nurse and everybody had stopped

The chaplain brought the remains into the middle of the hallway. All the nurses who had attended this particular patient, and some of them who just worked on this floor, gathered around the remains and bowed their heads.

I'm sitting here observing this because I'd never seen this before. The chaplain said a prayer, the wife kissed the remains, and then they started down the hallway.
As they passed, everyone in the hallway - people who were coming and going, people going to the dining room - all the men saluted, and all the women put their hands over their hearts.

After they had left the area, I went up to one of the nurses and I said "I've never seen anything like this before. What's up? I've never seen anyone taken out like that.  It was so moving, so professional, so caring. The way everyone went over to hug the family and give their condolences, it was like they were a member of the family. These people here were like members of the families. This is amazing."

She said to me, "Mr. Miller, we take all of our losses. We grieve for every one that we lose,  and because they're passed, our responsibility does not stop. They are still our patient. We will treat them with dignity and respect and professionalism, because they have served their country and they deserve every respect and honor that we can give them."

That was powerful for me. I just wanted to share this with the readers, because I want you to know about those people on the CLC, and about the grief that they show when they lose someone. I'll never forget that.

---Cyril Miller