JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Chaplain Marvin Barbre sits and talks with patient Bure Aldridge. Barbre is entering his 10th year as a chaplain with the Good Samaritan Hospice and helps people who are terminally ill prepare for their deaths.

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Marvin Barbre visits 87-year-old Bure Aldridge once a month to pray. They also sing and talk about Aldridge's childhood, when Aldridge dropped out of fourth grade to work on the family farm.

Before March, Barbre and Aldridge -- who has a deteriorating heart condition -- had never met. But Barbre, 59, is one of many hospice chaplains in the Roanoke and New River valleys who give spiritual support to people in their last days. His job is to understand people who may be at peace with their creator, or who may be angry with God.

"I usually try to simply be a presence," Barbre said. "I try to go in agenda-less ... I don't tell people what to do. I do not judge their life. I'm there to help affirm them as a human being."

Barbre works as a full-time chaplain at Good Samaritan Hospice in Roanoke County, and as such, he straddles a line between what he calls the technical side, and the human side of the job.

The technical side of the job dictates that anyone -- a child or a 100-year-old -- can request hospice service once a doctor says they have six months or less to live. The technical side dictates there is a team of nurses, social workers, volunteers and nursing assistants working together to help patients.

The technical side dictates a budget. The technical side dictates a set schedule.

On the other hand, the human side of the job, as Barbre calls it, dictates that anything can happen. Barbre can visit as many as five families in one afternoon. He can sing, pray talk about God, or -- because he is an ordained Baptist minister and a certified chaplain -- he can perform many types of religious rituals.

In February, for instance, Barbre presided before a marriage between Angelia Hartman, a patient, and her longtime boyfriend, Roger Dooley. Hospice team members found Hartman a white dress, white shoes, cake and a reception. Barbre performed the ceremony.

Many times, Barbre said he finds himself looking for someone outside of the hospice who will give spiritual guidance to a patient. Sometimes people have been members of religious organizations in the past, so Barbre helps them find their way back to their place of worship. To do so, he keeps a Rolodex of -- 754 and counting -- pastors, rabbis and other spiritual leaders.

There are other times when he calls the son or daughter of a patient who stopped speaking with their children years before.

"He really is an advocate for the patient," said Kathy Moses, a social worker for 14 years at Good Samaritan. "Without hesitation he will stand up and speak for them and their comfort."

Barbre visits Aldridge's Northwest Roanoke home, and also spends time with Aldridge's wife, Virginia, 89, and a daughter, Shirley, 53.

They look at pictures of Aldridge's mother and father in a horse buggy, pictures of the home in Floyd County where Aldridge grew up, and pictures of Aldridge's 26 grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.

They pray, and have communion together.

Said Shirley Aldridge: "We just enjoy being with Marvin."