5 reasons I’m thankful for hospice

by Andrea Powell, HPCCR Marketing Manager

Did you grow up, like me, going to Thanksgiving celebrations where you were forced to go around the table and tell everyone one thing that you were thankful for?  I hated the tradition.  Don’t get me wrong — I was extremely thankful for many things (including all of the people sitting around the table with me) but it was hard to be put on the spot and come up with something “unique” or at the very least different each year.  Plus, when you’re a kid, it’s just plain embarrassing to have the spotlight on you, regardless of the reason.

As we become adults, our perspective changes.  It deepens.  The real world has knocked us to our knees a few times and we’ve had to struggle to make sense of some of life’s most basic truths — birth, aging, joy, marriage, divorce, heartbreak, recovery, abundance, depression, peace, death (just to name a few).  We truly ARE more thankful for our small blessings because we’ve been on both sides of life’s pendulum.

When you work for a hospice organization, you become acutely aware of the blessing of life itself.  Every day we see patients finding their way to the core of what’s important to them.  We see them eliminate and prioritize the “clutter” until just a few things remain: family, loved ones, memories — everything that encompasses “home”.

So here’s my list of five things about hospice that I am thankful for (there are many, many more, but I’ll just talk about these for now):

1. The families we serve.  I am thankful that they trust us to care for them, that they allow us into their lives at such a difficult time, and that they have faith in our ability to make things better.
2. Our clinicians.  As we’ve heard so often, these people are angels in disguise.  Our clinicians have answered a calling and they pour their hearts into their work, changing the lives of families every day.
3. Our reach.  I am so thankful that families in eight counties in North Carolina have access to the important and compassionate services that we offer.  Our reach extends from the southern most part of Union County all the way up to the top of Iredell County, and from Cleveland County all the way over to Cabarrus County.
4. Our services.  I am proud that our organization offers so many important services to the communities we serve.  Hospice care, palliative medicine, grief care, community education, care for children, veterans, and patients of all diagnoses.  We do not turn anyone away who needs us.
5. Our Family Fund.  We have a fund that provides financial assistance to patients and family members when they truly need it.  We recently used our family fund to purchase a brand new suit for a grieving man to wear to his wife’s funeral.  The HPCCR folks who were helping him pick it out, along with the store clerks, had tears running down their faces from the simple joy that the new suit brought to this bereaved husband.  The money for this fund comes from the support of our generous donors and from HPCCR employees.  I am truly thankful for the help our family fund offers at critical times.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and fulfilling (and filling!) Thanksgiving.  And if, at your celebration, you have to go around the table to say what you’re thankful for, here’s a suggestion: tell ’em you’re thankful for hospice care.  We would be very okay with that.

Explore posts in the same categories: advocacy, awareness, end of life, hospice

Tags: clinicians, grateful, grief services, hospice, HPCCR family fund, Kids Path, palliative, Thanksgiving, Veteran care

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