Bereavement Professional

Alex Tyree was a much beloved friend and colleague at Delaware Hospice, Inc. (DHI). He had worked at DHI for 19 years – first as a chaplain and then as a bereavement counselor. In November of 2009, Alex was admitted to Delaware Hospice with gastric cancer. Throughout his life and in his work at DHI, Alex encouraged and taught living with mindfulness and finding beauty and joy of life even in death and bereavement. Alex died February 24, 2010. About a week after his death, four of us from the bereavement department who had worked with Alex, visited his widow, Cheri. As we got out of our cars, our colleague, Megan Youtz, said, “Karen there is a rainbow on your car!” We all looked up and sure enough there was the rainbow but it looked like a smile. We all said, simultaneously, “Alex is smiling at us!” We went to get Cheri so that she could see and she came out saying, “I’ve been looking for a sign!” We all agreed that it was definitely a “sign”. Thankfully, I had my camera and took this picture. We watched it disappear. We learned later that it is actually a circum-zenith arc and is sunlight reflected through ice crystals in clouds high in the sky. While the occurrence is not actually rare it is unusual to see one because they are so high in the sky and are usually only seen in colder climates. I still believe that Alex’s Rainbow as I call it, is a symbol of what he lived and what hospice care stands for, finding beauty and joy in life – even in death and grief. This picture is featured In "Insights" http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nhpco/insights_2010winter/#/58

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