Beverly Soyangco is mother, daughter, and licensed physician. She currently does not work but supports her husband, who is a practicing physician, and her two children. Thirty years ago, she left her family in the Philippines to continue her life in the United States. Her story mainly revolves around her experience caring for her ninety-two-year-old mother, who still lives in the Philippines.

 

 

Angelo Soyangco is a physician with specialties in pulmonary medicine, geriatric medicine, sleep medicine, internal medicine, and critical care. He was a hospice director for four years and continues to practice in Galesburg, Illinois. In my talk with him, I asked him about what hospice is, what his work entails, and how he speaks with patients and family about the end of life.

 

 

 

Tricia Hutchinson is a close family friend and former teaching aide of my brother, who has autism. In our conversation, she talked about both her experience of caring for her father and caring for her mother, twenty years prior. My brother and I grew up around her family and got to see her father on multiple occasions. My father was one of the doctors that took care of her mom as well. 

 

 

 

Kei Muira is a home health nurse based in Vancouver, Canada. As part of her job, she visits palliative care patients and helps them live comfortably in their final days. Her story focuses on what she has seen family do to express their love to the patients during that time. One of the biggest acts is the act of listening.

 

 

 

Nathan is a college-age student who grew up being very close to his grandparents. He experienced caring mostly for his grandfather during a summer and lost his grandmother around six months afterward. In his story, he talks about how the relationships between him and each of his grandparents have changed over time. Nathan wanted to remain anonymous, so his name and any names of people and places have been changed.