Kerry Egan, a hospice chaplain, admits that, much of the time, it's not God:
Mostly, they talk about their families: about their mothers and fathers, their sons and daughters. They talk about the love they felt, and the love they gave. Often they talk about love they did not receive, or the love they did not know how to offer, the love they withheld, or maybe never felt for the ones they should have loved unconditionally. … We don't live our lives in our heads, in theology and theories. We live our lives in our families: the families we are born into, the families we create, the families we make through the people we choose as friends. … This crucible of love is where we start to ask those big spiritual questions, and ultimately where they end.
(Photo: Hospice volunteers caress the hands of terminally ill patient Annabelle Martin, 92, as her health quickly declined at the Hospice of Saint John on September 1, 2009 in Lakewood, Colorado. By John Moore/Getty Images)
The Dish 