With his fists up in a boxer’s stance, Thomas “Tommy” Jamison says of his contemporary in the boxing world, “They called him Sugar Ray because he was sweet, his moves were sweet!”
Jamison is a 75-year-old hospice patient in West Philadelphia who spent his Tuesdays over this past summer reliving his glory days as a former boxer and ladies’ man.
As he tells stories of his past, Hannah Gittler furiously writes it all down.
Gittler, a sophomore English major in Drexel’s College of Arts and Sciences, interviewed Jamison for a creative writing class that was created last summer and is being offered again in the spring and summer of 2014. “He still has the heart of a fighter,” she says.
The class, entitled “A Beautiful Life,” pairs students with a patient in an area hospice or home to pen a “life journal” that chronicles the patient’s life experiences for their family and loved ones. Some students augmented the journals with scrapbooks, film and other projects.
Taught by Kenneth Bingham, a teaching professor of English, the 11 students in the inaugural class ranged in areas of study from biology to English, film, nursing and psychology.
“The experience of facing death and dying is as important for those pursuing careers in creative fields like writing or film as those going into the medical field,” said Bingham. “Many people are scared of death. But the last days of someone’s life are really a time to celebrate that life. This experience shows the patients that what they’ve done really matters, and students learn how much their own lives matter as well.”
The program is coordinated through Crossroads Hospice.
According to Gloria Allon, executive director of Crossroads, “Creating a life journal allows the patient to talk about their life — their first love, their greatest accomplishment — because we believe hospice isn’t about dying, it’s about celebrating the life you’ve lived.”
Crossroads compiles the stories and photos into a hardcover book which they give to the patients’ family and friends.
Erica Tuttle and Saadiya Ali, both biology majors who plan to go into the medical field, had an especially challenging experience, as the patient they were assigned to, John Manion, passed away prior to their first meeting.
Manion’s 76-year-old wife Nancy Manion, however, decided to participate in the project herself. Manion told the students that their weekly visits gave her a reason to get up every day and the journal allowed her to focus on the joy of her husband’s life and not just his death.
Another student pair, Michelle Nocito, a financial adviser who is pursuing a degree in psychology, and Judith Parent, a nursing major, met weekly with Carmine “Tom” Barbieri, a 98-year-old man whose family lost everything in the Great Depression, including their Philadelphia home where he grew up with his eight siblings, a driver, a cook and a maid.
Nocito is inspired by the joy and excitement that Barbieri still finds in everyday life, despite all that he’s been through. “As he’s talking with us, you can see the recall happening,” she says. “He goes to another place — it must be nice to go back there. We never want to interrupt him.”