Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/557366
"It feels like communication," June commented when I held her hand between my own. She was resting in her bed in the assisted-living center where she lived. When I had met her more than a decade before, June was a vibrant, physically active, and mentally engaging woman. We had performed together in an intergenerational dance theater performance in Denver, Colorado, in 1993. I had been seeing her regularly over the previous year to give her massage. Now in her 80s, she was a hospice patient, and I had the privilege of giving her nurturing touch in the last weeks of her life. That was in 2004. I still think about June, and all I learned from her. She was a friend, a co-creator in dance, a revered mentor, a beloved member of her community, and a feisty, wise woman. And she loved massage. Even as the needs of her physical health dictated a change from massage on a table to massage on her bed, she enjoyed the physical touch, and the deep and profound level of relaxation it provided. 62 m a s s a g e & b o d y w o r k s e p t e m b e r / o c t o b e r 2 0 1 5 By Mary Kathleen Rose not cure Lessons Learned Working with Elderly Clients Comfort,