The Hospice.....

Humility and Understanding..

These two qualities go hand in hand with daily life at the Hospice. The degree with which staff handle their patients is beyond reproach. The integrity and the devotion shown by all who work there marks the Hospice as a place where you know that despite your colour or creed you are all treated with the utmost respect .

I had to fight with my little friend for use of the bed control and the TV remote...

Photo looking down the front of the Hospice..

As individuals with either Cancer or MND we are given, regardless of age or sex, the care and dignity that the Hospice are so very good at. Your bathing and all toilet needs are done efficiently and no task is too small for the staff.
Meals can be catered for individual needs and the food they provide is to my mind , ( having just come away form a weeks respite care ) of very good quality. All the staff, nurses and Doctor’s are fully capable of providing you with everything you need and of giving you that quality of life whilst at the Hospice to make your stay easy, not only for you, but for all family members.
I have nothing but the up most admiration for the way that I was looked after during my first stay there. A huge thank you to you all….


Looking towards the 'Day Care' centre on the right.

If there was an award available for an institution providing Palliative & Respite Care for people with a terminal illness and of making the transition from living to the next stage of ones life easier for families then I would nominate 'Te Omanga Hospice' for such an award. From your first stay to your last they are with you all the way providing not only the full nursing care for you but guidance and counseling for all family members.

Looking towards the front lawn . One of the views that patients get from their rooms.

With my little friend watching TV...

Quote... I am one of those people who just can't help getting a kick out of life -- even when it's a kick in the teeth.

Polly Adler ( 1990 - 1962 )

New Dawn

Reasoning … Mankind was fortunate to have evolved with a brain that has over many thousands of years evolved with him. From the first time he made fire to putting a craft into outer space he has leaped forward, thinking things out, reasoning why this worked and that didn’t.
When you look at it hypothetically , it was only a month ago that he killed his first animal to be able to eat, three weeks ago that he dissected and made working drawings of a human cadaver, two weeks ago that he invented the computer and just on a week ago that he walked on the moon.
In the last couple of hours we have made strides against many diseases, have held world concerts to fight starvation and to combat global warming. But to what avail have all of our efforts been. We are still no closer to finding out why mankind has so many deficiencies, so many things wrong with the way we live.
We have this wonderful power to be able to reason but if we are unable to come up with a defence against a whole host of worldwide ailments including ALS/MND then we must find another way to use the many resources at our fingertips.
Over the last few years there have been many innovations to help those of us who need it to have a quality of life befitting to the lifestyle we have been used to. But, again, it all comes down to being able to reason, to put forward our thoughts and turn them into working drawings, if you like, and to come up with methods and procedures that will benefit all of mankind in his fight against life in general.
So where do we stand at this moment in time with our ailments. Research is still being done into the whys and wherefores of ALS/MND. We have many support people that most of us can turn to and our journey through life is made that much easier for that reason….
We have a brain but to use it we must reason things out, come up with ideas and theories, speculate on the possibilities of cures and put forth techniques to be used and the rules governing those techniques.
Mankind has accomplished much since the dawn of time but he still has a long road to go down before he can say that all disease has been eliminated, that there will be no more starvation, that we will all be equal and that there will be a ’New dawn’ , a new path towards salvation.

Quote… The earth is empty. The trees, once thick with blossom stand dead against a bitter sky. The streams are frozen. The heart has lost all hope. But see - along the branches new buds appear and greenness pushes through the ground unnoticed. Spring may be slow - but will at last return.
Pam Brown, B. 1928