Tim Bowley's visits to the Moog and Friends hospice in Penticton brightens up the day for the patients he spends time with.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Tim Bowley

Tim Bowley does his best to spread warmth, happiness and laughter as best he can when he volunteers at the Moog and Friends hospice in Penticton.

The hospice is a facility that provides end of life care to patients who are terminally ill and don't have much time left to live. They receive constant care and have a place to live with assistance until the end of their days.

“I just figured maybe they need somebody to come in that has a clear mind, who has never met them in their life," Bowley says. "I just love them regardless, whether they know my name or not."

He doesn’t know the story of the people he visits at the facility but he does know they deserve a moment of happiness to forget about all they’re going through.

Bowley brings flowers and stuffed animals, and makes sure to buy enough to ensure every patient gets a gift.

Although it is an emotional experience for Bowley, he does his best to hold it together for the patients, so they only see a man full of happiness who is ready to joke around, play and have fun.

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Once he leaves he says he's often overwhelmed with empathy and all of his emotions rush forward.

“By the time I exit that door, I have to wait a few minutes because I'm bawling my eyes out," he says.

There's so much going on in the world, he says, the hustle and bustle eats up people's day to day lives. What's needed is compassion.

“I think it's not just for them. It's for me too, to stop this world. The second you walk through that door, the world doesn't matter,” Bowley says. “Nothing outside that door makes a difference, nothing.”

Bowley’s world was opened up to the different struggles individuals go through but no matter what he wants the patients to feel love and connection as they approach the end of their lives.

“Every single one of us is made out of love,” he says. “This whole life journey is all pretty much crap, but at the end of our lives... there's nothing left, it's just love.”

Going to the hospice and brightening up the day of those he visits is the best reward he could possibly ask for. He doesn’t want fame, he doesn’t want riches, he wants to make others feel good.

“You get a million dollar cheque and go buy whatever you want, but it's not going to fill your heart. It will not,” Bowley says. “You walk into hospice and that will pay out 30,000 times what any cheque could possibly give you, because it goes to your soul and that is what matters.”

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