Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital Summer 2014 Volume 5, Issue 2 Office for Mission & Spiritual Care Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital 630.275.1185 GSAM-SpiritualCare @Advocatehealth.com Grateful Recently, when my mother turned 88, she talked a lot about how grateful she was for the life she has had. Certainly she has had her share of significant losses as well. The losses she seems to hold along with her gratitude, not despite it. This balancing of gratitude and grief takes effort, prayer and compassionate, caring friends and family. Spiritual and pastoral caregivers walk alongside those who seek some balance to discover ways to express the paradox, rather than the contradiction, of loss and gratitude. As we listen to one another’s stories, we discover many rich elements of God’s loving presence, guidance and mercy. The stories in Connections tell of the blessings of our partnerships that our shared healing ministry provides in service to those in need. For that I am grateful! Rev. Jim Christian Vice President Mission & Spiritual Care to our faith communities If you don't take a Sabbath, something is wrong. You're doing too much; you're being too much in charge. You've got to quit, one day a week, and just watch what God is doing when you're not doing anything. Eugene Peterson Connections Grace Notes are readings, poems or quotes from a variety of faith traditions and writers. Each reflection tries to touch on the heart of being human in this world. To receive Grace Notes five or seven days a week, please click here or contact [email protected]. Grace Notes In this issue: 1 Greetings from Jim Christian 1 Grace Notes 2 Gratitude: Longtime supporters make heartfelt bequest 2 The heart of a chaplain: Interview with Barb Burkhardt 3 Clergy parking 3 Hospice Corner 3 In upcoming issues Our hours: The Office for Mission and Spiritual Care provides spiritual care for patients and their families 24 hours a day every day of the year. The office is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. During those times, you may contact us at 630.275.1185. Evenings and weekends, call 630.275.5900, and ask the operator to page the on-call chaplain.
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Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital
Summer 2014Volume 5, Issue 2
Office for Mission & Spiritual Care
Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital
630.275.1185GSAM-SpiritualCare
@Advocatehealth.com
GratefulRecently, when my mother turned 88, she talked a lot about how grateful she was for the life she has had. Certainly she has had her share of significant losses as well. The losses she seems to hold along with her gratitude, not despite it.
This balancing of gratitude and grief takes effort, prayer and compassionate, caring friends and family. Spiritual and pastoral caregivers walk alongside those who seek some balance to discover ways to express the paradox, rather than the contradiction, of loss and gratitude.
As we listen to one another’s stories, we discover many
rich elements of God’s loving presence, guidance and mercy. The stories in Connections tell of the blessings of our partnerships that our shared healing ministry provides in service to those in need. For that I am grateful!
Rev. Jim ChristianVice President
Mission & Spiritual Care
to our faith communities
If you don't take a Sabbath, something is wrong. You're doing too much; you're being too much in charge. You've got to quit, one day a week, and just watch what God is doing when you're not doing anything.
Eugene Peterson
Connections
Grace Notes are readings, poems or quotes from a variety of faith traditions and writers. Each reflection tries to touch on the heart of being human in this world. To receive Grace Notes five or
2 Gratitude: Longtime supporters make heartfelt bequest
2 The heart of a chaplain: Interview with Barb Burkhardt
3 Clergy parking
3 Hospice Corner
3 In upcoming issues
Our hours: The Office for Mission and Spiritual Care provides spiritual care for patients and their families 24 hours a day every day of the year. The office is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. During those times, you may contact us at 630.275.1185. Evenings and weekends, call 630.275.5900, and ask the operator to page the on-call chaplain.
Connections - Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital Office for Mission and Spiritual Care Summer 2014 - Page 2
When did you realize you had a passion for comforting people in crisis?
When my children had grown up, I wanted to find something rewarding for the next chapter in my life, so I began working with a spiritual director. She helped me remember how much satisfaction I had had when I worked in a hospital years earlier (I was going to be a nurse) and in parish ministry. My next step started coming into focus.
What was your journey to becoming a chaplain?
Because I am Catholic, seminary was not an option for me. I received my Bachelor’s Degree in pastoral ministry and theology from Dominican University. Soon I will receive my Master’s Degree in spirituality from Loyola University.
I will also be a spiritual director. That term is somewhat misleading. A spiritual director doesn’t direct but rather helps someone unearth his or her inner feelings, fostering inner growth. Probably spiritual companion would be more accurate.
I came to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital for its CPE training, and I’ve been involved with this hospital ever since. I have experience with other hospitals that are not faith-based as all the Advocate hospitals are. There is a huge difference. Having the underlying belief that all people are created in the image of God – well, this is the right place for me.
Does your ministry have a special focus?
I work in registry, so I go everywhere and see everything and everyone. I can spend time with someone with chronic illness, someone seeking God, someone healing and heading home, then a trauma patient – I’m not locked into any one thing. It’s exciting at this time in my life to be doing something so rewarding. I consider it divine providence that I am here at Good Samaritan Hospital. I was really lucky to be where I was when I was. I have been really, really, really blessed.
Ruth Anne and John Unik have led extraordinary lives. Both grew up in the Chicago area and earned undergraduate degrees in chemistry. Their married life began in the late 1950s at the University of California, Berkeley, where John earned a doctorate in chemistry and Ruth Anne worked in the university’s personnel department.
In 1960, the couple moved to a then-sparsely populated Naperville, and John began a long and successful career as a nuclear physicist at Argonne National Laboratory, where he eventually retired as a division director and senior scientist. Ruth Anne cared for the couple’s two children, Carol and John, while also painting and becoming active in the Naperville Art League.
Ruth Anne first got involved with Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in 1994. She served as membership chair, treasurer and first vice president of the hospital’s auxiliary before becoming its president in 2000. During her 20-year relationship with Good Samaritan Hospital, she also worked directly with patients and visitors as a volunteer, an experience she still finds gratifying. “It makes an impression on your soul. I feel so good when I get back from volunteering.” Ruth Anne was ultimately named chair of the Illinois Hospital Association’s Constituency on Volunteers, where she shared her
expertise on utilizing hospital volunteers throughout the state.
Over the years, Ruth Anne also helped steer Good Samaritan Hospital as a
member of its Governing Council, Development Council
and Gala Committee, where she enthusiastically raised charitable dollars
for the hospital. The Uniks enjoy attending fundraising events and are proud and loyal Presidents Society donors. John says, “When you donate money, you want to see where it goes. When we tour new buildings and see the latest technology at the hospital, we know it is money well spent.”
As they age, the Uniks especially value having access to a high level of clinical expertise near their home. Last year, John needed emergency spinal surgery and didn’t hesitate to go straight to Good
The heart of a chaplain: Interview with Barb Burkhardt
Please see Gratitude on next page.
Ch. Burkhardt has been a chaplain at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital since 2010.
Gratitude: Longtime supporters make heartfelt bequest
“Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital – as a faith-based nonprofit – cares more about me as
a person.”
Connections - Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital Office for Mission and Spiritual Care Summer 2014 - Page 3
Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital3518 Highland AvenueDowners Grove, IL 60515630.275.5900www.advocatehealth.com/gsam
Good Samaritan Health and Wellness Center3551 Highland Ave., Downers Grove, IL
630.275.2879
Advocate Good Samaritan Outpatient Facilities:6840 S. Main St., Downers Grove, IL, 630.275.684015900 W. 127th St., Lemont, IL, 630.243.7100
Chaplains:Barbara Burkhardt Donald FryeJohnny Gillespie Kathy GingrichAnna Lee Hisey Pierson Judy JacksonSally Miller Laura WilliamsLinnea Winquist Adrienne Zervos
Chaplain Educators:Amy Snedeker Jeni Porche
Administrative Assistant:Julie LaFayette
To continue receiving Connections, your email address must be current. Please inform us of any changes in your email address or other contact information: Call 630.275.1185 or email to [email protected].
Service of Remembrance
Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital Chapel
Sun., June 22 (week after Father’s Day)Good Samaritan Mission & Spiritual Care and Advocate Hospice join together in leading this service as a comfort for families they serve who have recently lost a loved one. For more information, call 630.829.1753 or email [email protected].
Next service: Sun., Sept. 21, 4 p.m.
Hospice CornerAdvocate Hospice
1441 Branding Lane #220 • Downers Grove, IL 60515
In upcoming issues
Love knots – an extraordinary group of generous handicrafters
The grateful patient
Gratitude from prior pageSamaritan Hospital where neurosurgeon Yogesh Gandhi, MD, performed the procedure. “Dr. Gandhi is more than an excellent surgeon,” John says. “He goes out of his way to take care of you.”
John has been treated at facilities other than Good Samaritan Hospital and describes the Advocate difference this way: “All the hospitals are professional, but I feel Good Samaritan Hospital — as a faith-based nonprofit — cares more about me as a person. The nurses have such a deep interest in their patients. There’s really no comparison. ”
In 2000 when the Uniks’ first grandchild, Daniel, was born, they decided to review their estate plans. Ruth Anne says, “We wanted to make sure every person and organization we loved was taken care of — our children, our family, both of our colleges — and, of course, Good Samaritan Hospital.”
Making a bequest to their favorite hospital was an easy choice for John and Ruth Anne, in part because they feel so deeply connected to its people. They’ve come to know and respect the leadership of the hospital, and they’ve benefited from the competence and compassion of the clinicians. As Ruth Anne says, “We’ve made so many wonderful friends.” Investing in the future of such a caring community seems a natural extension of their longtime support of excellent health care close to home -- and a lovely way to express their gratitude.
Clergy parking is available in the Valet Parking Lot next to Parking Garage D (the south end of the campus near the Emergency Department). The entrance is between the valet sign and the Earth Day flag.
Designated parking is located at the far end of the first row.
No permit is actually required – although the sign says it is.