Meet Our Providence Hospice Chaplain

Reverend Ruth Harrison  |  We are blessed to have the experience and compassion of Rev. Ruth Harrison to offer spiritual support to our Providence Hospice community. Ruth has been a chaplain with Providence Hospice for 12 years. She has also served as a chaplain at University of Chicago Hospital, University of Illinois Hospital, St. Catherine’s Hospital in East Chicago, and St. Mary’s Hospital in Hobart. In addition to her life in ministry, she was a Chicago Public School teacher for 35 years, retiring in 2003.

Ruth learned about our organization from a church member in 2008. “My ministry at Providence, a non-for-profit organization with a religious foundation, is the best ever,” she says. “This a dream come true for me, as I served as a deacon in my church with the same mission for 35 years.” Psalm 23 is her favorite passage in the Bible, and its message goes hand-in-hand with the important and hopeful message she provides to the families and patients she works with here.

Ruth loves that her ministry gives her the opportunity to connect with, encourage, and support each patient and their family, as well as staff members. On one special occasion, she officiated a graveside service with a balloon release in the middle of a dark, rainy storm. “The balloons did rise to heaven,” she says. 

Ruth has three darling daughters: Teresa, a pharmaceutical sales representative in California; Gina, an attorney in Chicago; and Deanna, a teacher in Atlanta. When she is not in ministry, she enjoys going to the movies.

Chaplaincy Services  |  Facing a hospice diagnosis gives people a chance to review their life and their relationships, and to search for meaning. Spiritual questions are often part of the end-of-life process, and Providence Hospice provides a chaplain to discuss those questions if you choose. Our chaplain can walk with you as you consider how to find meaning in suffering, how to heal broken relationships, and how to resolve guilt, anger, anxiety, alienation, and other unfinished business that may stand between you and peace.

Though Providence Hospice is a Christian organization, our chaplain is available for people of all faiths or no faith. A sense of divine purpose gives meaning to our work, and it makes us eager to serve all people, regardless of their religious beliefs. Our Hospice Chaplain will walk alongside your family on this chapter of life, offering prayer, spiritual support, empathy, and compassion. She also provides direct counseling and assists with memorial preparations.