Published on: June 30, 2020

Chairman of Pallium India, Dr M R Rajagopal writes:

In the new palliative care initiative in Calicut in the 1990s, Mr Asoka Kumar was the first volunteer. He was one of the founders of the organisation Pain and Palliative Care Society (PPCS) in 1993. When we started a multidisciplinary one-room palliative care outpatient clinic within Medical College Hospital on 01 January 1994, we had two full-time volunteers –  Meena and Lissy Rajan. They continued as volunteers for many years and then became staff members.

At the mandatory age of retirement, Lissy has retired officially from Institute of Palliative Medicine at Calicut on 30 June 2020.

I rang her up on the eve of her retirement. What are your plans, I asked.

She was a bit vague, and seemed a bit at a loss, but from her words I got the general plan. A staff member would have a mandatory retirement age; but not a volunteer. Lissy cannot easily stay away. I think it is going to be just a few days or weeks. Lissy is going to be back in palliative care as a volunteer; she is the kind who gets her meaning of life from the relief that people in suffering get.

Best wishes Lissy. May your tribe increase.