A gentle goodbye: The hospice chaplain sees patients to life’s end

A gentle goodbye: The hospice chaplain sees patients to life’s end
Lovin' Life [AZ]; by Karen Schaffner; 8/5/25
As a long-time hospice chaplain Patrick Cunningham has to answer a lot of hard questions. In his years working with the dying and their families, he has discovered that they all trickle down to one unanswerable, universal desire: to know. “(They) ask me the existential question, which if you know anything about what you’re doing, I would never answer a question like, ‘What in the world, with all those people who I have loved who have died, why am I still here?’” he said. Walking people to death’s door for nearly the entirety of your adulthood will without question provide a unique perspective on life. Cunningham has done the job for more than 40 years, most recently with Azorna Hospice in Marana. That’s long enough to know he doesn’t have the answer... If Cunningham’s chaplaincy job could be summed up in one word, it would be support. Despite the title, his job is to support the person who is headed to the door.