07/25/2025
❤️
When I was working in hospice during Covid, one of the hardest things for me was that families couldn’t be with their loved ones as they were dying. I held phones to ears so patients could hear familiar voices, and set up FaceTime calls, but it wasn’t the same. At the end of life, it is presence and touch that brings the most comfort, and it never felt right that I was the one at the bedside when it should have been someone they loved. I’ll always believe we got that part wrong.
One day, I sat at the bedside of a man whose wife and daughter weren’t allowed to be with him. I had a small red heart stone in my pocket, and I placed it in his hand, gently closing his fingers around it. I held his hand until he took his last breath. Later, I gave the heart to his wife, it was the last thing he held, which I hoped would bring her comfort. It did. I gave a lot of red heart stones out during Covid.
I have carried heart stones in my pocket ever since, and have implemented this into what I offer patients and families when people can’t be at the bedside in those final moments.  I also carry a small fabric square that I can drop the heart into, so it doesn’t touch my hand and truly is the last thing that someone holds and touches as I give it to someone they love. 

Yesterday, I stopped in a store to buy a few cards. On the counter was a bowl of beautiful heart stones and I asked if I could pick out a few. The woman behind the counter asked me what I was going to do with them. When I told her, she poured the whole bowl into a bag. Her eyes filled with tears. “This is my gift to you, and to everyone who will receive one,” she said. We both cried. And we hugged.
And in that moment, I was reminded that there is still so much kindness in the world.
xo
Gabby
www.thehospiceheart.net
