Rev. Jo Laurence, a Buddhist chaplain, poses for a photo on April 22, 2022 in the garden of a memory care facility in Portland, Ore. before visiting hospice patients to offer spiritual care. Buddhist chaplains like Laurence have become more numerous in hospitals, hospices, and prisons and graduate programs to train them have proliferated across the country. (AP Photo/Gosia Wozniacka) Rev. Jo Laurence, a Buddhist chaplain, speaks about meditation and bodily suffering with hospice patient Skylar Freimann on April 20, 2022 at an assisted living facility in Portland, Ore. Laurence says her approach is increasingly important as more Americans become un-churched or consider themselves spiritual but not religious. (AP Photo/Gosia Wozniacka)
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Wedged into a recliner in the corner of her assisted living apartment in Portland, Skylar Freimann, who has a terminal heart condition and pulmonary illness, anxiously eyed her newly arrived hospital bed on a recent day and worried over how she would maintain independence as she further loses mobility.
