To Visit My Favorite Fishing Hole
Mr. Smith (name changed) loved to fish. Every weekend for most of his life, he managed to fit in a time to fish for a while at his favorite fishing hole. His wife, Mary, often told us that his fishing spot was like his second home.
A Last Christmas with Sara
This bucket-list story is about sweet young Sara (name changed). We had the honor of caring for Sara, and of working with her family to help prepare them for life without her.
To Make Thanksgiving Dressing One More Time
LeAndra Sullivan, 57, a bubbly, irrepressible optimist with a heart of gold, refused to let cancer keep her from living. In fact, that’s why she chose hospice care—she had too much left to do, and she needed help making sure she could do it.
To Continue Her Pedicures with Sam
You may have noticed that our special wish stories are often, at their heart, about relationships. Even those that seem to be about something else really have relationships at their root.
To Get Back Home
Nancy Isaacs, a Hospice Care Plus nurse, now retired but with 20-plus years under her belt, will never forget one patient’s bucket-list story. “He hadn’t lived in our county very long,” remembers Nancy. “He was from a small town in eastern Kentucky, and his greatest wish was to have his body taken back there to be…
New Study Links Hospice to Reduced Depression for Spouses
A new study shows that spouses of hospice patients have fewer depression symptoms than those whose spouses did not receive hospice care. The research was conducted at Mt. Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine and published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Researchers studied Medicare claims data and responses to the Health and Retirement Study, which focuses on…
To Learn to Drive
In this reflection from a current staff member and former volunteer at Hospice Care Plus, we learn that sometimes, even family members of hospice patients have important bucket-list items. I became acquainted with hospice as a volunteer while in college. My first assignment was with an older couple I’ll call Mr. and Mrs. C. I…
To be Self-Reliant
Mrs. Brown taught us that we have to balance the need for self-reliance with the need for safety–and that creative solutions are always at-hand.
