Palliative Peace Capt TPS Gill Memorial Care & Support Home

30/11/2025

What is spontaneous remission in Palliative Care Context?

Spontaneous remission is rare, but not impossible.

In palliative settings, it is sometimes seen that:

A patient with expected short prognosis lives far longer

Symptoms relieve dramatically

Tumor burden reduces unexpectedly

This can happen when emotional, psychological, social, and spiritual support reduces stress levels — improving immunity and overall resilience.

Palliative care does not chase miracles, but it creates an environment where the body, mind, and spirit are in harmony — and sometimes, surprising improvements follow.

16/11/2025

We all wish for a “beautiful” death, for ourselves and for the people we love. And thankfully, many times, it happens, or at least it comes close. I feel fortunate to have witnessed countless deaths that were peaceful, quiet, and even beautiful. But I have also been present for the ones that weren’t, the ones filled with struggle, distress, and sounds that echo in your mind long after the room has fallen silent.

Death and the dying process are as individual as fingerprints. No two are the same, and I think we need to talk about that more honestly. Describing death as beautiful or peaceful can unintentionally mislead or isolate those whose experiences looked very different.

As hospice clinicians, we often explain that certain changes such as skin color, breathing patterns, movements, sounds, even moments of restlessness, can be a normal part of dying. But let’s be honest: while these things may be clinically normal, they are not emotionally normal for the people witnessing them. There is nothing “usual” about watching someone you love leave this world.

I do my best to ease the struggle for both the dying and those keeping vigil beside them. Still, I am not always successful. I have had to learn that it isn’t because I have failed, it’s because sometimes, the body follows its own path, and what it goes through is beyond our control, no matter how gently we try to guide it.

Some deaths are hard to witness. I have learned to be more mindful of that, the quiet trauma that can live inside those memories. Watching someone you love suffer creates a different kind of pain, one that needs acknowledgment and tenderness long after last breaths.

I have often wondered what makes a death “beautiful.” Perhaps it’s when someone has lived a full life and is ready, or when they pass without struggle, surrounded by love. Maybe it’s when the suffering has finally ended, and peace, however brief, fills the room.

There are many interpretations. I once read that “a beautiful death is a death that allows for a celebration of a life well-lived and a sense of peace.” I think that’s true, but I have also learned that beauty in death isn’t always found in how it looks. Sometimes it’s in the love that fills the room, in the hands held tightly together, in the whispered goodbyes, or in the sheer courage it takes to stay present when things are hard to watch.

As someone who walks alongside the dying, I have come to accept that it’s not my place to decide whether a death was beautiful or not. That belongs to those who had to say goodbye. My role is to prepare them for whatever may come, to hold space for both possibilities. And if the end is peaceful, that is a blessing. If it isn’t, at least they were not unprepared, and perhaps it will feel a little less shocking.

Death is my teacher, and I am an attentive listener.

xo
Gabby

You can find this blog here:
https://www.thehospiceheart.net/post/when-it-isn-t-a-beautiful-death

05/11/2025

20/10/2025

🪔 Warm Diwali Wishes from Capt. TPS Gill Memorial Care & Support Home.🪔

As the festival of lights brightens the world around us,
may it also illuminate hearts with kindness, compassion, and hope.

At Capt. TPS Gill Memorial Care & Support Home, we celebrate the light that shines within every soul —
the light of love that comforts, the light of care that heals,
and the light of humanity that connects us all.

This Diwali, let us remember that even the smallest diya
can dispel the deepest darkness when lit with a spirit of togetherness.

💫 Wishing everyone a warm, peaceful, and joyous Diwali from all of us at Capt. TPS Gill Memorial Care & Support Home. 💫

30/03/2025

Wishing you a joyous Eid al-Fitr filled with peace, happiness, and blessings! May this special day bring you and your loved ones joy and togetherness. Eid Mubarak!

24/03/2025

Teaching Life to Love Death

There is no scripture, no sacred text, where death is not spoken of—whispered through the words of gods, saints, sufis, and sages. Yet, we spend our lives denying its presence, pretending it is not always there, walking beside us in silent companionship. Every breath we take, every heartbeat that echoes in our chest, is shared with death, waiting patiently for its moment.

For some, death arrives like a merciful friend, offering relief from unbearable sorrow, pain, and grief. For others, it comes as a thief in the night, stealing away those who are young, radiant, and full of life—those who least expect it, yet whose fate was always written in unseen ink.

We feel the weight of our mortality when we stand among the graves, in funeral homes, in the cold silence of morgues. In those moments, we are forced to acknowledge how fragile we are, how temporary our existence truly is. Fear grips us, reminding us of our fleeting nature. But the moment we step away from those places, we slip back into illusion, believing ourselves invincible, as if death could never touch us.

Yet, I have always felt the presence of a companion who has never left my side—one who will remain with me even after my body is no longer my prison. Death is not my enemy, but my truest friend, the only certainty in this uncertain world.

Our deeds, our karmas, shape the journey of our soul. We come into this strange, unpredictable world to leave behind footprints that will outlive us. Some believe in a higher order, a divine reckoning, while others think that death is the final end, that nothing remains beyond it. Perhaps both are right. But what truly matters is how we choose to leave this world—whether we depart in peace, with a legacy of love and kindness, or vanish into the abyss, forgotten.

Life complicates death, that much is certain. But perhaps, if we stop fearing it, if we embrace its inevitability, we will finally learn what it truly means to live.

Avtar
A Death Doula

18/03/2025

Sitting at the bedside of a dying soul, I find myself once again in the sacred space between life and death. This is one of many moments where I bear witness to the final breaths of someone I have never met before—no shared history, no past encounters, no earthly ties. Yet here I am, holding their hand, offering silent prayers, and waiting for Death to take them gently into its embrace.

For some, this moment is softened by the presence of family, their hands entwined in love and sorrow. But for others, it is just us—the strangers who become their last companions, the unknown figures who stand guard over their fading existence. I sit here, searching for a connection, yearning to glimpse the life they once lived, to see flashes of their laughter, their struggles, their joys, as if watching a fleeting trailer of their journey. I do not want their departure to be a silent mystery. Let me see them, even for a fraction of a moment, so that when their soul slips past me, I am not left with nothing but an empty stare.

There is an eerie stillness in these hours, a weight in the air. I can feel the unseen—the Death Angels lingering in the corners, brushing past me as I walk through the quiet halls of my hospice in the dead of night. Sometimes, I sense a chill, a whisper of something beyond my understanding. But none of that unnerves me more than the question that always lingers—why have our paths crossed? Is this an old debt being repaid across lifetimes? Did they once care for me as I now care for them? Were we connected in some past life, only to reunite in these final moments?

Death is inevitable, a certainty that awaits us all. But if my karmas are kind, I pray that when my time comes, I, too, will be cradled in the arms of faith, trust, dignity, and love—just as I strive to offer those in their final hours.

Avtar
Death Doula