by Marc and Julie Anderson
mjanderson@theleaven.org
OVERLAND PARK — Hospice is about the hope of having a good end of your life.
That’s according to Michelle Buzzard, community and parish liaison at Catholic Community Health, which offers a continuum of senior care services, including home care, skilled nursing, memory care and hospice care.
Buzzard was among seven speakers whose presentations were part of what organizers hope will be an annual event during Respect Life Month.
Called “Signs of Hope,” the speakers’ event held at Holy Spirit Church in Overland Park drew approximately 90 from across the archdiocese. Other speakers included Josh Ruoff, archdiocesan lead consultant for special needs; Deacon Bill Scholl, archdiocesan lead consultant for social justice; Denise Ogilvie, chief mission integration officer for Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas; Dr. Lorenzo Rizzi, archdiocesan associate superintendent of Catholic schools; Molly Price, a nurse practitioner specializing in fertility care; and Rachel Roth, a fertility care practitioner from Bloom Cycle Care.
The evening began with Mass celebrated by Father Justin Hamilton, pastor of Holy Spirit, after which participants had the opportunity for fellowship during dinner. Near the end of the meal, Debra Niesen, lead consultant of pro-life ministries for the archdiocese, welcomed those in attendance from across the archdiocese, saying the church has designated October as Respect Life Month “for us to reflect and pray more on the sanctity and dignity of all human life.”
Most of our energy, Niesen said, focuses on preventing abortion and caring for mothers who experience unexpected or challenging pregnancies, but also the sick and elderly.
Having been a member of Archbishop Emeritus Joseph F. Naumann’s bioethics council, Niesen said, she’s learned about so many other topics, often trying to determine how to share the message with others. This has resulted in the first of what she hopes will be other similar speaker series held throughout the archdiocese to address some of those “dignity of human life topics that we sometimes don’t get to.”
After sharing a new video produced as part of the Walking with Moms in Need initiative, Niesen invited participants to choose from breakout sessions on topics from natural fertility to special needs within Catholic education, immigration, Catholic hospice care and NaPro technology.
During one of the final sessions, Buzzard shared her journey of heartbreak and loss beginning with the death of her father when she was 11, followed by the loss of her younger brother a few weeks before his 18th birthday. She was in her 20s. Her first husband later died in her arms at age 31. Finally, she cared for both her grandparents and mother prior to their deaths. Somewhere along the line, after her conversion to the Catholic faith, she realized God was calling her to pursue a ministry in hospice care and make it her full-time work.
As a liaison for Catholic Community Health, she speaks with hundreds of people every year, educating them about the one and only Catholic hospice and home care available in the metropolitan area.
She shared with those in attendance the range of services available — from bereavement programs to daily Mass to 24/7 in-home care to a hospice facility, dispelling myths about what hospice is and isn’t. And she assured her listeners that whichever service they chose, the Catholic faith would be upheld, and that the experience would be a journey of hope and of living each day to the fullest.
“Just like my little brother said, ‘I’m going to die young, so therefore, I’m going to live each day to the fullest.’ And it’s right on his [grave] marker. I think of that all the time,” Buzzard said.
