Volunteering in palliative care in the Laurentians
Read time: 4 minutes
By Jo Ann Champagne
On the occasion of National Volunteer Week, Jo Ann Champagne, a volunteer at Palliacco, shares her journey and what it means to her to be a human presence to people in palliative care in a hospital in the Laurentians. Through her testimony she tells how volunteering can transform our view of life, the fragility of human existence and the value of just being present for someone.
A Journey Through the World of Literature and Culture
More than thirty years have shaped my career in the literary and cultural world. I managed a communications company specializing in this field, first in Quebec, then in France.
I have had the privilege of working throughout the Francophonie and contributing to the influence of internationally renowned writers.
My job was to highlight literary works, develop strategies to make them known and to reflect on the best ways to position them in a demanding and competitive world. I had to analyse, structure, convince. Find just the right angle. To stand out.
This world required diplomacy and expertise. It included elements of visibility, presentation, and promotion. But on the chessboard, despite the communication plans and the international scope of the projects, one thing remained non-negotiable for me: the writer — the human being above all.
Behind each book, each work, there was a person with their doubts, their vulnerability, their story. My role was not only to promote a literary work. It was a question of respecting, supporting and protecting that fragile part.
In hindsight, I now see that this constant attention to the human being was preparing me, without my realising it, for my involvement as a volunteer in palliative care in a hospital in the Laurentians, a profoundly human experience that is well illustrated during National Volunteer Week.
The Door to the Palliative Care Unit
When I first went through the door of the palliative care unit, I could tell I was going into a completely different kind of place.
Here, nothing looks the same as in other departments. Titles, ranks, positions gradually disappear as you enter. There is no more personal image to hold out to others, no more special position to defend. All that remains is the human being.
In a place where end-of-life accompaniment reveals its human dimension, time itself feels different. It slows down. It becomes deeper.
You learn to sit down without any fixed agenda. To listen without trying to steer the conversation. And to hold a hand without trying to fix anything.
As I had to do in the literary world, I rediscovered what vulnerability really means. But here it is stripped of any pretending. There is no project to be presented to anyone. There is only one person, going through the final stage of their life.
Stark Simplicity
Being a volunteer in palliative care, for me, is to merge with this stark simplicity, projecting a quiet and embracing tenderness.
You discover that genuine presence is not just a performance. It is not putting on a show. There are no specific criteria. It is lived in shared silence, in looking into another person’s eyes, in calm breathing that conveys reassurance.
And that’s all it takes. Sometimes just being there is enough.
What Volunteering Gives Me
Volunteering to be with people at the end of life has profoundly transformed me.
It has taught me that our value lies not only in what we achieve in life, but in the quality of our presence. It reminded me that beyond every role played in society, there is just a person who wants to be acknowledged for their existence.
In palliative care, the human essence definitively takes precedence over mere outward appearance.
I can also see how much the sessions teach gratitude. Human frailty, when it shows itself without any mask, draws us back to what is essential. With simple little signs. The soft sunlight falling on the Laurentian mountains. The richness of a shared human moment.
An Invitation to Volunteer
We think it is we who are doing the accompanying. But very often it is the person whom we are visiting who is accompanying us, within. They remind us that life is not just about our list of accomplishments or our record of successes. It is measured in authenticity, in true connections with others, in moments fully lived.
My professional career involved promoting literary works and honouring those who produce them. Volunteering in palliative care is today an invitation to confront the human being in their ultimate simplicity, stripped of even their greatest worldly embellishments.
If you too feel a desire to give a little of your time, to listen, to provide your presence, a kind look, know that volunteering in palliative care is a where every small gesture can mean a lot.
You don’t have to be an expert. You just have to be available, to be human, and open.
To get involved as a volunteer is to accept to enter into a real, straightforward and deeply touching connection. It is to discover that in giving of oneself we often receive much more than we give.
I am grateful to be able to live this experience, thanks to the existence of Palliacco and its committed team. Their support and trust allow volunteers like me to find their rightful place with people at the end of life and with their loved ones.
Presence is Enough
Today when I go into a room I bring neither expertise nor any plan of action. I just bring my presence.
And I leave each time a little more aware of the fragility and beauty of human existence.
Over the course of this activity a desire to deepen this experience slowly grew in me, leading me to return to school and for studies at the Université de Montréal in the End of Life and Palliative Care programme.
Volunteering is often an activity provided to others, but in return it can also profoundly transform the person who does it.
In the intimate setting at the end of a life, I learn again and again that all that matters is just to be there, fully, simply, humanely, without judgment, and with an open heart.
Jo Ann Champagne