What is the essence of hospice? Ask any family or caregiver and they will tell you it is the comfort of dying in our own beds, or in a home-like atmosphere within a medical setting.

In this poster commissioned by The National Hospice Foundation to coincide with their 25th anniversary, I include the symbol of transcendence after death – butterflies – carrying three iconic images representing hospice. [Moving from left to right] is the grandfather who kisses his grandson after a daily visit; the widow who gently kisses her husband goodbye at the time of death; and the daughter who has already grown comfortable playing at her ailing mother’s bedside.

The original photograph depicts 18 founders standing on the steps of the Capitol. [Note that on the wall directly behind the founders standing on the lowest steps I have photomontaged a fragment from Psalms 23:6: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”