One last Christmas wish

It was early November, and a quartet of carolers were harmonizing holiday songs in a patient’s room. Christmas arrived early on the progressive care unit (PCU) at UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central (MHC).

Six days earlier, Kaylah Bowman, a complex care social worker at Memorial, met with her patient and her patient’s husband. After spending nearly three months on the PCU, they were navigating incredibly challenging end-of-life decisions. With nothing more that could be done to extend the patient’s life, the patient’s husband had a final wish – one last Christmas with his wife.

Bowman knows how important those final moments and memories are with loved ones, having a personal experience with loss and grief.

“I know the value of having positive memories at the end of life,” said Bowman.

She thought: “How can we support this family with creating final memories that are positive and try to meet that need of healing early?”

Bowman sprang into action to spearhead the family’s final wish, and she set a date for their last Christmas together. She enlisted help from family and colleagues to foster a festive spirit.

She gathered some of the patient’s favorite things, and set up a Christmas tree decorated with miniature ornaments of dogs and puppies, the patient’s favorite animal.

The patient’s room was “decked to the nines.” Paper snowflakes hung from the ceiling. Twinkling Christmas lights and garland lined white boards. Handmade holiday decorations of gingerbread men, reindeer and holly adorned the walls.

Bowman credits her colleagues on the PCU for spreading the holiday cheer. Nurses donned Christmas hats and brought in cookies, hot chocolate and cider.

“The nurses on the floor were incredible,” said Bowman. “They jumped in and just engaged. Everybody came together. It was really, truly a wonderful interdisciplinary team effort.”

“She was just so happy to have a Christmas,” Bowman said of her patient. “You could tell it was her thing.”

Bowman arranged for a quartet of carolers from Glen Eyrie Madrigal to sing that day. For 30 minutes, they sang while the patient mouthed each word along with them.

“She knew every word to those Christmas carols,” Bowman said of her patient. “She was so engaged, I never saw her face so bright and shining as when those carolers were there.”

As Silent Night began to play, mixed feelings of joy and sorrow filled the air. “Sleep in heavenly peace” sounded different this time. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.

“It was very powerful,” said Bowman.

Bowman is grateful for the opportunity to not only help fulfill the family’s request, but also help in the healing of colleagues.

“I think it was also really healing for our nurses, because they knew the moment she left that it was ending,” said Bowman. “And it was healing for the staff to have those memories too.”

Two days after the patient left the hospital, she passed away. Her husband, grateful for those who had given him one more Christmas with her, called to let the staff know.