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"VITAS Can Help This Community Grieve Better"
Originally published in Chicago Hospital News, February 2006
By Robin Fiorelli
Wanda Henry Jenkins’ mother was murdered when she was 23 years old. This unsolved crime changed her life, of course. But it has probably also changed the lives of thousands of people who have been touched by Jenkins since then.
“People experience grief and loss all the time, not just when there’s a death,” explains Jenkins, who is the bereavement manager for VITAS Innovative Hospice Care® of Chicagoland Northwest. “It hurts, and the way out is mourning. That’s the healing process, and we walk the journey with them.”
Jenkins earned her LPN in 1968. Since then she has earned a degree in English and another in psychology. She has a master’s degree in human services. And for five years she apprenticed with Dr. Marvin Rubin, a rabbi and thanatologist. It was at that time that Jenkins developed a program in homicide bereavement. Based on the hospice philosophy, it served families faced with sudden and violent death. Coming to VITAS six years ago, Jenkins believes, was divine intervention. “This is where I am supposed to be,” she says.
Although she assists VITAS chaplains in visiting patients and families for both pre- and post-death bereavement support, Jenkins’ focus is on the community at large. “I’m a community-based person, and VITAS can help this community grieve better,” she says. She’s as likely to speak on grief at a SIDS workshop as at an AME evangelism seminar. She’ll be part of a panel on cultural diversity in San Diego at a meeting of the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization in April, and attend a retreat recognizing Motherless Daughters Day in May. She and her husband pastor a church in Chicago. And she’s had two books published; this summer alone, Jenkins wrote eight workbooks and training guides on bereavement.
“Bereavement is not hard for me,” she says. “I love it. It’s not scientific, it’s about the heart. The ability to heal is within each of us. I just bring that out. I help people identify their grief and identify their goals and objectives. I help them live without their loved one.”
Jenkins acknowledges the impact her mother’s death has had on her work, but she keeps it tucked away. “It’s not about me,” she says. “No matter what I’m feeling, I let them lead the way. Hurting people have hurts you don’t know about. You have to be sensitive. You have to be careful you’re meeting their needs, not yours. But if you open up, they’ll let you in.
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