ORANGE PARK – Lives can be uplifted by volunteers at Haven-Custead Hospice Care Center for the terminally ill, but it can be an emotionally stressful job.

What compels someone to volunteer to visit hospice patients? After all, it takes a particular type of person to open up to such an experience. Getting close to someone who is dying may seem like a hopeless relationship, but these relationships do matter.

Patients in hospice are faced with the hardest part of dying – how they lived, or perhaps, how they haven't. At the end of life, many begin to ask questions like, “Was it worth it? Did I matter? Did I have a purpose? Did I make a difference? Did I live for myself or others? Did I live courageously?”

Others are forced to reconcile with regrets they carried in life, which can weigh tremendously on a person. Thankfully, they don't have to carry them alone.

"A lot of times volunteers get to hear those stories, and they find out there are some unresolved issues," said Sandra Francis, Haven Hospice volunteer and training coordinator at Haven locations in Orange Park and Jacksonville. "We had a patient who lived on her own. She had terminal cancer. Well, the volunteer came in almost every week and they became pretty good friends."

After staying for several weeks, the volunteer asked why she had no other visitors.

"The woman told her that she had a daughter who had not spoken to her in 30 years. So we were able to locate the daughter and she came down to be with her mother in her final moments. That patient died in her daughter's arms," Francis said.

Volunteers can impact someone's life, no matter how brief. As a hospice volunteer, you not only bear witness to the last days, sometimes the final hours, of a person's life and their stories.

It gives patients meaning, comfort and the courage to move on.

"Many of the volunteers are searching for purpose, as well," said Francis. "To give back and be a part of their community. When I talk to volunteers, I always ask them what brought them to us, and generally speaking, they've had a family member in hospice, or they just feel God's calling to do this.”

Being there, talking, listening, holding someone's hand, making phone calls to family members and running errands, these simple acts of kindness can make a whole world of difference in the last moments of someone's life.

"In the volunteering training, we go through all the aspects of hospice, not the clinical side of things, but emotional and spiritual support," Francis said. "As far as volunteers go, we have about 35 at Orange Park. Some of them do administrative work. We have other volunteers that help in our resale store, Haven Attic. As far as patients are concerned, our volunteers are there purely for companionship. They can go to their homes or here in the care center.

For a complete list of volunteer opportunities, go to beyourhaven.org.

"We also have a program called ‘No One Dies Alone,’” Francis said.

NODA volunteers comfort patients in care centers, facilities, and homes during their last hours of life. "We have several volunteers from that particular program who sit at the bedside around the clock for the last couple of days of the patient's life.”

Volunteers can also create a legacy for patients by engaging in activities including taking hand photography, recording oral histories and sewing memory quilts.

"This program is called Haven Legacy," she said. "For example, we have a volunteer who photographs patients' hands with their families."

Hands, Francis said, tell us the life that a person has led – their talents, skills, how they made their living and how they expressed their love for others.

"The face doesn't always look great at the end of life, but hands have a story," she said.

Haven Legacy provides other complimentary services to families in hospice care, including life review videos, slide shows of memorable family photos, memory bears, and written narratives of the loved one's life story, many of them led by volunteer programs.

The program supports families with meaningful mementos of the life of their loved ones, free of charge. If you want to volunteer, go to The Haven website, beyourhave.org, to fill out an application or speak with a volunteer coordinator about those opportunities.

Be a story keeper, a confider, a companion. It is never too late to give back.