Hospice Workshops & Collaborations
A Pilgrim’s Way through Grief – Helping Others and Ourselves
An In-service Session with Author Ira Baumgarten
(The session can be adapted to fit specific time availability and participant’s needs)
Part One: The Journey – the Experience
To begin, we will listen together to A Night on Buddy’s Bench – An End of Life Story. The participants will have an opportunity to explore A Pilgrim’s Way Through Grief as a three phase spiritual journey. First, The Call to the Bench to face one’s own or another’s end of life; Second, Being On the Bench, wrestling with loss and grief, making meaning, seeking solace. Third; Returning from the Bench holding grief and gratitude together. This perspective can help us to be kind and patient with others and ourselves in the face of loss. Ira writes, “In this time of social isolation, our ability to hold our feelings of loss and the preciousness of life is a spiritual calling we’re all facing.”
Part Two: A Pilgrim’s Way through Grief
We will explore ways to use A Night on Buddy’s Bench in grief work, specifically, how to use the story of Buddy’s Bench to help individuals and groups in their bereavement. Examples will be shared about how to use the story as a springboard for discussions, grief journaling, creative art expression, and in creating rituals.
Participant Comments
“A Night on Buddy’s Bench was shared with me through Northern Light Hospice. This was a share that really resonated with me. As a doula I listen to stories of loss We are all connected by this loss and grief. We can lean into the spirit and feel what is left behind. A Night on Buddy’s Bench has a mastery of nature references that give beautiful symbolism to grief and loss, giving space for connecting with people gone with the spirit left behind. The loss of the friend, loss of a loved one and loss of oneself are all captured perfectly with connections to the ocean and nature. I really found this to be a special book.”
Hospice Volunteer
“May I lend my voice to the many people who attended your presentation at our quarterly meeting last week. Hope you realize how much your words touched folks. So many accolades for you! In today’s world, the issues of loss and grief are front and center. We need to do everything we can to address them priority. Our wellness as a society depends on it, with so much appreciation for your presentation and donations.”
Kandyce Powell
Executive Director, Maine Hospice Council and Center for End of Life Care
“On behalf of the Down East Hospice Volunteers Board and staff, I wish to convey our gratitude for the copies of A Night on Buddy’s Bench and A Pilgrim’s Way through Grief by Ira Baumgarten. We will look for ways to include the concepts and approaches expressed in our bereavement efforts. Both the publications and the Zoom presentation at the Maine Hospice Council Quarterly Education meeting by Ira are a credit to the Maine Hospice Council.”
Paul R. Strickland, Board President
Down East Hospice, Maine
Ira has conducted workshops, installations and/or donated books with the following organizations:
- Louisiana-Mississippi Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
New Orleans, LA - California Hospice and Palliative Care Association
Elk Grove, CA - Humane Prison Hospice Project
Bolinas, CA - Doors of Hope Food Bank
West Sand Lake, NY - NOpiates Committee
Averill Park, NY - Sand Lake Center for the Arts
Sand Lake, NY - Northern Lights Hospice
Bangor ME - Maine Hospice Council and Center for End of Life Center
Augusta, ME - Hospice & Palliative Care Federation of Massachusetts
Wrentham, MA - The Arc of New York Guardianship Program
Latham NY - Venice Peace Project
Venice, FL - MaineCare at Home Hospice
Camden, ME - Sussman Hospice House
Rockland, ME - Saratoga Community Hospice
Saratoga, NY - Hospice & Palliative Care Association
Albany, NY - CareFirst Hospice
Painted Post, NY - American Meditation Institute
Averill Park, NY - Arts, Letters and Numbers
Averill Park, NY - Monhegan Library
Monhegan, ME - Sierra Madre Public Library
Sierra Madre, CA - Book House
Albany, NY - Log Cabin Books
East Greenbush, NY - Burden Lake Book Club
Averill Park, NY
2023 Buddy’s Bench Collaborations
Doors of Hope Fundraiser 12/16/23
12 Sign book sets given away – raised $300.00.
Spirit Calling Exhibit – Transformation Project
Arts, Letters and Numbers, and Sand Lake Arts Center
A Night on Buddy’s Bench – Goes to Prison Hospices
In the Spring of 2023 Northern Light Hospice Maine awarded Ira a grant to disseminate Buddy’s Bench and the Pilgrim’s Guide free to organizations providing Hospice services. Ira worked in a previous career as an Administrator for Prison College Programs and decided to donate his books to Prison Hospices. In 2023 books were donated to Humane Prison Hospice Project and the Louisiana Mississippi Hospice and Palliative Care Association Prison Program.
“Before my cellmate of five years passed, he begged me to take care of him. So I did. I fed him. I cleaned him up. When he had to go tot he hospital, he fought them. He wanted to come back. Him dying made me want to change. He was my fried. The person who took care of him, that was a good part of me.”
Lenny, member of Brothers’ Keepers, trained in end-of-life care by Humane Prison Hospice Project
“Thank you for your continued interest and generosity towards prison hospice programs in this country. Our programs are going well here in LA and MS; we are in the process of completing training for 23 grief support group peer facilitators at 4 prison locations in LA. Many of those peer facilitators have already begun for organize and lead grief support groups within their respective facilities.I am always grateful for any donated resources for each of these programs. I will deliver them personally on one of my regular visits to each facility.”
Jamey Boudreaux
Executive Director
LMHPCO.org
To obtain free copies of A Night on Buddy’s Bench and the Pilgrim’s Guide through Grief, for your organization email your request to: irabaumgarten@gmail.com
Memorial Community Project
CareFirst, a local hospice in Painted Post, New York, used A Night on Buddy’s Bench to create rituals to help very different communities, continents apart, heal from loss. Chelsea Ambrose, Director of Counseling Services and a Board member with the Bon Foundation, took a copy of the book to the Bon Tibetan Monastery in India to share with the student monks to help them grieve the loss of an elder spiritual leader. After sharing the story, students wrote blessings to their deceased leader on orange ribbons made from monk robes.
Inspired by Buddy’s Bench, Carly Nichols, Grief Services Manager, along with Chelsea from CareFirst, then made a Memorial Community Project. They partnered with the Art Council of the Southern Finger Lakes and had artists create a bench installation with a sculptured tree that would allow community members to sit and write a blessing or memory to a love one on similar ribbons and hang it on the tree, along with the ribbons from the students brought back from Tibet.
Above the Trees
Tara Mullins choreographed this dance film after reading A Night on Buddy’s Bench. About the film, she says, “The dance piece reflects the spirit of my grandmother, the dreams I have about her and the connection between her and my daughter that is built on love.”