On the night of our Hospice Fundraiser in 2018, I lost a good friend. When the auction was over and everything was cleaned up, I went to my car to drive home. I was distracted by the events of the day but before I pulled away I called Carol to check on her. She was at Hospice House with her husband George. When she answered she told me he had just taken his last breaths and that she and their dog Jasper were sitting with him saying one final goodbye. I went and sat with them and said my goodbyes as well, reading the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying into the space, not sure if the ritual would help George on his passage, but knowing that it would help me feel more grounded in the face of the unknown.
When I was a volunteer at Hospice House, George showed me the ropes. He taught me how to make individual flower arrangements from the donated funeral bouquets. He taught me simple things like how to simply sit with the patients and offer comfort without saying a word.
At the time I was in yoga “school” and needed willing students. George was one of my first students and patiently listened and learned ... and taught me how to teach, without telling me. He had been a professor for many years so he knew a lot about how to teach, and he also knew how to a be good student.
Years later, after George completed his own yoga teacher training, he started bringing these two worlds together. George taught the staff at Hospice House and started a Yoga for Grief group at Hospice’s Full Circle grief center. I think that’s where he met his future wife, Carol.
George understood the healing power of yoga and brought his two passions together in service to the family caregivers as well as the professional caregivers at Hospice. This year I am proud to announce that his legacy will be commemorated with the George Cox Memorial Fund for Yoga at the Edel Caregiver Institute. The money we raise at our annual Hospice Savannah Yoga Relay will fund ongoing yoga classes and support services at ECI.
If you can join us at our fundraiser on Friday, September 20, 2019, sign up here. If you cannot join us but would like to make a tax deductible donation, you can donate here. Thank you for supporting this great cause. Your donations are supporting the healing of others and I know that George would be happy to know that he made a difference and that the initiatives he started are living on.
Namaste,
Kate
