The biggest heartbreak of Margaret’s life was that she wouldn’t live long enough to hold her grandchildren. Her two daughters were in their twenties, but she was running out of time. The pain that Maggie felt was in part from her cancer and the treatments, but it also came from her sadness. The Hospice at Home team identified her grief and came up with a plan.

She chose a couple of her girls’ favorite story books from their childhood. A Hospice at Home volunteer recorded Maggie reading the books and put them on CDs. Maggie gave the story books and CDs to her daughters. She asked them to hold her future grandchildren on their laps, hold the story books, and let them listen to their grandma read them a bedtime story.