The Grace In Our Goodbye The Help We Got To Let Our Parents Go

The Nursing Saviours Supporting Julie And Margo

- Lynley Ward

Twins Julie Fielding and Margo Stewart will never forget the strands of a beautiful waita hospice staff sang as they farewelled their mother Jeannette from the place she spent the final week of her life.

Those who looked after the ailing 78-year-old gathered alongside family to give her a touching choral departure as the hearse left the grounds of the care facility.

It’s something that remains a treasured memory a year on as Julie and Margo fondly recall how staff at Auckland’s Mercy Hospice treated their cherished mum with such gentleness and respect as she succumbed to a rare blood cancer last August, months after she was diagnosed with the terminal disease.

Tells Julie, “They give everyone a beautiful send off. They prepare your loved one so they look gorgeous. They put a little butterfly on the door, then when the undertaker or funeral director comes, all the staff stand outside and sing a beautiful MaÌ„ori hymn. You can go and join them or watch from afar.”

Sadly, it was the second time in four years the twins (56) needed to call on the charity’s specialist palliative care.

The first was in 2013 when their father, Ian Stephenson, died aged 78 after battling two different cancers over three decades.