A Note About the Fijian Culture of Compassion
This woman, "Taka", got us through the final days with my mother. At the one-month mark, today, of my mother's passing, it is a still a strongly sad memory. . . but looking at this photo with Taka, she brought smiles even so.
Having experienced hospice care first-hand for the first time with my mother, it is truly amazing that people dedicate themselves to this profession. They all deserve our thanks and support.
Perhaps more amazing still is how many Fijians in the US have made caregiving and especially end-of-life-care their calling. This article in The Press Democrat (Sonoma County, CA) puts it in some perspective:
“[Fijian care-givers] joined a growing community of expatriate Fijians in Sonoma County that Dr. Narayan Raju, the honorary consul for Fiji in San Francisco, estimates at about 600. Some within the local Fijian community believe they could number 1,000 or more, and an extraordinarily high percentage of them, by some estimates as much as 90 percent, are or have been caregivers.
Eritrean, Filipino and some Latino immigrants also have taken to caregiving, but the Fijians have claimed it both as a family business and a religious calling. Most have a strong Christian faith, primarily Methodist and evangelical, and call upon that as motivation to attend to others.”
Whatever the reason for this culture of compassion, we are thankful that we had one of these immigrants from the South Pacific islands of Fiji by our side to the end, bringing smiles.