Longing to Bless
Caring for an ailing sister shaped Celeste Wouden’s desire to learn the healer’s art.
Change people's lives at home and around the world
January 2022
Nursing student Sarah Allsup is fascinated with the power of music in the care of terminally ill patients.
As a child, Allsup remembers visiting a critically ill family friend. “A hospice worker came with a harp and played soothing music while my dear friend lay in bed dying. The feeling in the room was enchanting; after all that pharmacology could do, this music was the medicine that eased her pain.”
Years later, still enthralled by the concept of music therapy, Allsup became a volunteer for hospice, where she helps patients through their last difficult days. Allsup and her husband sometimes share music with the patients where she volunteers. She plays the flute, and he plays the guitar. “It is always spiritual and memorable,” she says.
Allsup was a 2020 Wheatley Student Scholar and is in her final year as a nursing student. “Being a BYU student is a dream come true,” she says. She continues to gather research on the effects of music therapy and is eager to become a nurse. Allsup aspires one day to be a woman’s health nurse practitioner who eases suffering with music.
Caring for an ailing sister shaped Celeste Wouden’s desire to learn the healer’s art.
Camie Mendon’s father operated a plant nursery near Paradise, California, a town that, in practical terms, no longer exists. The business was destroyed - along with most of the town - in the devastating Camp Fire of 2018.
June Leifson says that her career goal of becoming a nurse was the result of more than a score of operations that introduced her to the field of medicine in a personal way.