Episode 6 - Mr. Richard

Richard reading aloud from his tablet with his caregiver standing next to his bed listening. — Richard’s caregiver Bernadette Jones listens to Richard reading about a new nebula from his tablet.

Richard is in hospice and needs caregivers 24-hours-a-day. He marvels at all the attention. For his caregivers, it’s a vocation in the deepest sense of the word. Richard makes a case for more public support for caregiving.

The family hired caregivers from a home health care agency called Home Instead so that he could remain at home in his apartment at the senior living residence. Tyneisha, Stephine, Scarmientha, Mercedes, Bernadette, and others work in 12-hour shifts, day and night. Medicare doesn’t cover these services, so Richard’s family is fortunate that they can afford to do this.

The caregivers talk about their love for this job and its challenges. As Richard struggles with his physical decline, he expresses appreciation for the professionalism and devotion he is receiving from hospice and his home health aide team.

Music Credits

Arctic Draba, Scallat, and Paper Napkin by Blue Dot Sessions

Keeping Dad Alive

Conversations between a dad and his children capture the sheer joy of talking, singing, and laughing with Richard, a man of simple pleasures, expansive intelligence, historical perspective, and progressive politics. In Season 1, Richard is living under lockdown in his senior living residence during the coronavirus pandemic. It tells the story of Richard’s resilience and of the family’s efforts to ease the psychic impact of his isolation. In Season 2, Margaret asks Richard why he talked so much about vocation when she was growing up. Richard offers the wide arc of his theological understanding—from the need to care for working people to the cosmic Spirit that holds the universe together. They decided to devote an entire podcast season to vocation.

Episode 6 - Mr. Richard

Links

Music Credits

Mailing List Signup