Once Sr Elizabeth Farmer
starts to talk about her past patients, there is no stopping her.
The
memories come tumbling out, of individuals she helped in their final
journeys.
Sr Elizabeth remembers them all from her long career as a palliative care worker and a member of the Little Company of Mary.
She’s 80 now, and retired, but has acted as a consultant for a website that was launched on All Saints’ Day, by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
The site takes its inspiration from the Ars moriendi (“The Art of Dying”), a 15th-century guide to preparing for a good death. It is a resource that has been created to help anyone who wants to learn more about death and who is in search of spiritual and practical guidance.
It should be of particular interest to those who are seriously ill, their loved ones, and professional carers. Experts in palliative care, ethics, chaplaincy, and history have been involved in the project.
As we sit down to talk in her cosy, modern flat in west London, Sr Elizabeth tells me she is pleased the Bishops have taken up an idea that has been her mission. In her work, she says, she sought always to discern the spirit of someone who was dying, though the veil she wore was sometimes a barrier, at least at first.
“I had to say to them, the person is the person and the spirit is an integral part of them regardless of what their religion is. Their spirit is a gift from God and if they have got a problem you deal with it.”
Sr Elizabeth’s Presbyterian roots show through in her directness and her practical wisdom. She was born in west London and trained as a nurse at Charing Cross Hospital. She loved talking to her patients – so much so that her employers complained that she was wasting time. She switched to working as a theatre nurse purely to remove the temptation to chat.
Her vocation to the religious life was triggered by two bereavements.