Alaskan Catholic tries to make sure no one dies alone

Published: 2008-01-07

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNS) -- Ed Iwata, a member of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Anchorage, marked his 60th birthday with eight different celebrations. He considers himself very much alive. When the AIDS crisis began in the 1980s, Iwata began to think about death and why people, including him, were so afraid of it. He said AIDS sufferers were "treated like the lepers of Christ's time," which made him wonder how he could comfort them. At the time, he lived in the Washington area and faced his fears by getting involved in AIDS education. Now retired and living in Alaska with his wife, he has become involved in another ministry to the dying -- participating in No One Dies Alone, a national program with a local chapter in Anchorage sponsored by Providence Alaska Medical Center. The program ensures that no one at Providence's four facilities dies without someone at their bedside. For Iwata, a volunteer with the organization since it began in Anchorage in 2006, being present to death is being present to the sacred.

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