The Heart of Hospice

By: Aimee Whalen RN BSN, Danny Whalen - editor

Narrated by: Danny Whalen

The Heart of Hospice reminds us how important it is for the dying to experience touch, human connection, and dignity at the end-of-life. Through the journey of one hospice patient from beginning to end, Ms. Whalen gracefully illustrates that these compassionate connections are absolutely integral to letting go peacefully.

Drawing on personal experiences over her forty-year nursing career, Aimee has outlined an enlightened but practical approach to patient care that seamlessly blends traditional western medical care with holistic teachings such as Reiki and Therapeutic / Healing Touch, all to the benefit of both the patient and their families. Her book also makes a compelling argument that an early referral to a professional hospice organization often results in a more peaceful, dignified, fulfilling, end-of-life experience.

The Heart of Hospice should be required listening for medical residents on their hospice and palliative care rotations. But whether you’re in the medical field, you know someone who’s sick, or you just want a better understanding of life’s final chapter, this book should give us all an ending to strive for.

©2021 Aimee Whalen (P)2025 Aimee Whalen

A Tender Window into The End

The Heart of Hospice, written by the infinitely empathic Aimee Whalen, RN BSN, edited by the mesmeric Danny Whalen, and also narrated by his tranquil tones, is an examination of one family's experience as they enter the realm of hospice care. The family in question, like so many others, upon hearing those two seemingly innocent words together for the first time, conjured images of a bevy of bloodthirsty nurses, the deterioration of their home into a cold, sterile environment, and the de-personalization of their beloved's final days. What they were welcomed into instead was a world of love, grace, community, and wonder... certainly one worthy of a bond like that of Jim and Ann.

Aimee Whalen weaves a beautiful tale of one family's navigation of slow, existential loss, while simultaneously sharing salubrious truths from her own area of expertise, Therapeutic Touch. This book, and her important work, is a challenge to the often prevailing ideology that one's final days need be sorrow-filled and shameful. Death is our great equalizer in this life; that reality needn't upend us, so much as it could humble and awaken us to our shared, interconnected humanity. Her calling, and her experiences, are a testament to this Heart of Hospice, this beating, shared compassion and regard within those lucky enough to have lived, and to love.