My Final Journey

This beautiful letter was written by one of our patients, Fred, to his hospice physician:

When people are asked "how would you prefer to die?" they almost always say "by passing away in my sleep." Once, that was also my response.

I now see and live life quite differently. I have learned, post my diagnosis, you must experience the final journey to truly appreciate it.

The final journey I am referring to provided me, and maybe you, the ability to feel, to do, to observe, to cry and to wonder. To be held or very simply touched. Questions were asked without reservations while answers simply seemed to flow my way. It really was a wonderful experience.

I was looked at ~ positively; I was listened to ~ intently; I was hugged ~ with meaning; I was helped ~ continuously and, yes, ~ it all felt so very good. Some friends reached out while others stayed overly reserved. Everyone seemed to find or at least blend into their own comfort zone.

In her famous book On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross identified five distinct stages (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance) a person normally follows in their final journey.

It became clear to scholars those very same stages identified for a dying person also applied directly for the loved ones and friends of those who were actually dying.

I truly enjoyed, yes enjoyed, my journey. The time it took me to do some processing also provided the quality time my family, friends and acquaintances may have needed to do their own searching. Time I believe well spent.

My journey has finally ended. Although yours may be far off and nowhere in sight, it still looms to surface surely some day.

May your final journey follow smoothly in the footsteps you helped mold for me. You have truly assisted in blending various segments of mine into a wonderful experience I now cherish and so dearly appreciate.

Remain well and we shall meet again.
Fred

Corporate Partner Profile - Wally Findlay Galleries

James R. Borynack

With galleries in New York, Barcelona and Palm Beach, James R. Borynack is renowned throughout the art world as the Chairman and CEO of the distinguished Wally Findlay Galleries International. Along with his lifelong interest in fine art, Jimmy developed another passion as a young man after a life-changing experience.

In the mid-1970s, Jimmy’s mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness. She was such a vibrant and active woman leading up to the diagnosis that her seven adult children and her husband struggled to comprehend what was happening. Finally, hospice was called in. “They met with us and took the time to educate us on the end of life,” Jimmy explained. “It was an amazing experience to transition from confusion to acceptance, focusing on our time together. Everything became so much easier for all of us.”

To help others receive this invaluable support, Jimmy has dedicated himself to raising awareness of the benefits of hospice care. At the national level, he became chairman of the board of the National Hospice Foundation and chaired their National Board of Governors. Locally, Wally Findlay Galleries Palm Beach has been raising funds to support Hospice of Palm Beach County since 1997. “We continue to support Hospice of Palm Beach County each year because it is a necessity that touches everyone,” Jimmy added.

In addition to their Corporate Partnership, the Palm Beach gallery generously hosts the Hospice of Palm Beach County Foundation Chairman’s Reception each year. Announcing a new fund-raising event, Jimmy shared, “We are excited to be hosting Masque Celebrity Art at the gallery on March 9th, 2013. It will be an evening of fun as we auction off masks decorated by Celebrities, Philanthropists and Captains of Industry.” Jimmy added, “We do whatever we can to support Hospice of Palm Beach County as they care for all of us.
They’re our saving grace at the end of life.”

To learn more about Hospice of Palm Beach County Foundation’s Corporate Partnership Program and other corporate giving programs that support Hospice of Palm Beach County, please contact Carrie Browne at 561.494.6882. For information on upcoming Foundation events, please contact Lauryn Barry at 561.494.6884.

Every day is a gift

Hospice is about living… We are here to give you comfort and help you live each day as fully as possible when you or someone you love has a life-threatening illness. Our care is based on the belief that every life has meaning and every moment of every day is a gift. As we ease pain and symptoms, and provide the emotional and spiritual comfort your family needs, you can focus more on each other and each precious day you have together.

If you’ve ever had the chance to experience hospice care, you may have seen our philosophy inaction. Dr. Faustino Gonzalez, MD, FACP, FAAHPM, Vice President of Medical Affairs, says it best. “When we first meet with our patients and families, we ask them, ‘What are your hopes? What would make you happy?’ We are honored to hear their stories and support them every way we can. We’re here to help people live the way they want to and do the things that are important to them.” In fact, it was this quote that inspired us to share a few of the meaningful stories we so often hear from the families in our care, through News to Friends.

We make sure that every person in our care feels protected and supported. We understand what families are going through and give them whatever tools and support they need to meet their goals for living.

“When a cure is no longer likely, there is so much we can do to help people feel better,” explained Dr. Gonzalez in a recent interview. “We are here to meet their needs.We are here to help them live. That is exactly what hospice s all about.”

Volunteers

Meet Ruby Collins … Volunteer since 2003

Volunteer Ruby Collins

Nine years ago, Hospice of Palm Beach County helped Ruby Collins care for her husband, Charlie, in their home. “It was hospice care the way you hope it would be,” said Ruby. The experience was so meaningful to Ruby that she has been a volunteer with us ever since! “Hospice relieved so much of the burden from our shoulders and gave us more personal time together,” she explained. “They bathed and exercised Charlie, who had become completely immobile. And music therapy became his greatest pleasure.” After Charlie’s death, our grief support services helped Ruby come to terms with her loss and everything she’d been through in those four difficult months. Now, Ruby volunteers her time at fund-raising events that support our patient care and grief support programs. Wanting to help others receive the care that her family did, Ruby has been a tireless volunteer, helping out in our offices, at Foundation events and making “Caring Calls” to family members to offer condolences and information on our bereavement services.

Thank you, Ruby! You touch the lives of countless people and make it possible for us to care for everyone who needs us! 

You can help families when they need it most! 

Are you looking for a meaningful volunteer experience? Here are some of the many ways that you can help.

• Patient Visitors - Personal visits are a gift of compassion and kindness that mean the world to our patients and families. 
• Special Events - Our volunteers help Hospice of Palm Beach County Foundation at their fund-raising events that help us care for the people in our community. 
• Resale Shops - Helping out at our upscale resale shops are a great way to get involved If you have a few hours per month and you would like to make a difference please call us at 561.227.5138.

Finding Comfort in Care

Mother and daughter, Carmen and Maria.

When Maria Gonzalez moved to the U.S. twenty-two years ago, she was reaching for dreams she has since achieved, dreams of becoming a citizen and raising a family here. The hardest part of moving here was leaving her parents in Colombia.

Over the years, they visited one another as often as they could afford to, but Maria longed to be with her mother, Carmen. Carmen was a homemaker who raised five children in a small town near Cali, Colombia. She loved tropical music, dancing, cooking and being in nature.

When Carmen came to visit in April 2012, Maria noticed that her mother seemed exhausted. Carmen assured her that she was fine, she was just tired and had a sore back. She was happy to be here to rest, relax and to spend time with Maria and the grandchildren she missed so much.

In the car one day, Carmen began to cry, telling Maria she was in great pain and wanted to return to the house. Maria insisted on taking her to the emergency room at JFK Medical Center, where an MRI was performed, detecting a stage four, inoperable tumor in her lower back. Carmen was admitted to the oncology floor right away.

Explaining the shocking news that Carmen's cancer was too advanced for treatment and she may have as little as a week to live, the oncology staff suggested that Maria admit her mother to the care of Hospice of Palm Beach County. "I had no idea what hospice was. We were in shock. It was all happening so fast," said Maria.

A Hospice chaplain and nurse met with Maria and Carmen. "Right away, they were so kind to my mother, offering her some warm soup, making her comfortable," shared Maria. "They explained what hospice care is and that it is a benefit under Medicare and insurance, but my mother didn’t fall into any of those categories. I told them that we had no medical insurance, money or resources to pay for her care," she continued. "They told me not to worry, that my mother would not have to move from there - that they would take care of her and she would have everything she needed." Carmen was cared for in the Jay Robert Lauer Hospice and Palliative Care Center located right there in the hospital.

"Everyone cared for my mother with such gentleness, compassion and respect," Maria explained. "When the Music Therapist came I was holding my mother’s hand. As she sang songs in Spanish and English, my mother responded. It was a meaningful and wonderful experience."

Maria with her son, Angel.

Carmen was 68 when she passed, and had been in our care for two weeks. "We were not prepared emotionally for a funeral and we did not know what to do," Maria continued. "Again, Hospice told us not to worry and they would take care of us." We arranged for a local priest to hold mass right at the hospital, and it was a touching experience for the whole family.

"It was a gift from God to have all of this. It is a gift to have peace in our sorrow. We are so grateful to Hospice of Palm Beach County. We are so grateful to everyone," Maria concluded.

Where do your donations go?

When you make a donation to Hospice of Palm Beach County Foundation, your generosity offers comfort and assurance to families who are facing the end of life. The funds and resale store goods you donate are used to fill the significant gap between what is covered by Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance, so that each patient and family can have the highest possible quality of life. With more than 1,000 families in our care each day, your support has a profound effect on so many lives in our community.

In addition to funding our extensive Grief Support and Music Therapy programs, it is your support that directly provides our patients the non-reimbursed treatments and medications that are crucial to their comfort, and offers hospice care for families without insurance or the ability to pay.

Carl, a middle-aged man with metastasized cancer, wants to go on hospice care at home. He wants to get relief from his symptoms, spend his remaining time at home with his wife and children and make sure they get the emotional and grief support they need. To relieve the intense pain caused by the size of his tumor, he needs to continue radiation treatments. Yet, they are not covered under his insurance policy's hospice benefit. Thanks to our donors, we are able to admit him and patients like him who need complex treatments for comfort, such as radiation, chemotherapy, transfusions and IV medications. Many hospices, without our "open access" approach to care, simply would not admit Carl.

The Robinsons, a family with no medical insurance or resources, needs our care for their 12-year-old child who has cancer. Thanks to our donors, we are able to provide charitable care for this family, offering expert medical care and comfort for their son and the emotional and spiritual support their whole family needs.

Miriam, an elderly woman in an independent living facility, has developed difficulty breathing. Each and every hour it makes her uncomfortable, interrupts her sleep and causes her great emotional distress. She needs treatments to ease her breathing, but the medications are not covered under her hospice diagnosis. Your donations are used to provide these medications, giving her welcome relief.

Sharon is grieving the loss of her husband, who recently died from Alzheimer's. After 50 years of marriage and 10 years of caregiving, Sharon feels lost. Miles away from her adult children, she struggles with managing the intensity of her emotions, getting adequate sleep, and finding the hope that life can one day be good again. Your donations help to provide bereavement counseling for people like Sharon so that they can better cope with the challenges of losing a loved one.

These are just four stories of the thousands each year, as families are cared fro by Hospice of Palm Beach County. "As a not-for-profit hospice, our philosophy is simple to do whatever it takes to offer everyone in our community the comfort, compassion and dignity they need during their final months. Thanks to your support, we can make that possible," explained Greg Leach, president of Hospice of Palm Beach County Foundation. "We are so very grateful for our donors and the many good people who support our events and resale shops. Your generosity means so much for families at their time of greatest need."

THE IMPACT OF YOUR DONATIONS...

• For $15 per day, we can provide medication for one patient.
• For $155 per day, we can provide end-of-life care to one indigent patient.
• For $175 we can provide in-home assistance for one 8-hour day for one caregiver.
• For $250 we can buy a guitar for one of our music therapists.
• For $300 per day, we can provide one day of palliative chemotherapy for a patient.
• For $375 we can send one grieving child to Camp SeaStar.

As the fundraising arm of Hospice of Palm Beach County, the Hospice of Palm Beach County Foundation is an independent, 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization with its own staff and board of directors. The Foundation raises funds through special events and donations of all kinds.

A Healing Story

“I hope that everyone who is struggling with the loss of a loved one will reach out for the help available at Hospice of Palm Beach County...”

– Valencia Campbell

When Valencia Campbell was twenty years old, she and her husband, Cornel, had a beautiful baby boy named Jonathan. Life was full and happy for the young couple as they were working, going to college and raising their son. When he was just six months old, Valencia discovered that she was pregnant again, this time with a little girl.

Jonathan and Kayla

There was something very special about Kayla. No one in the Campbells’ large, extended family or circle of friends had known a baby quite like her. She seemed intently aware of people, paying close attention to them and engaging them. “She was like a little princess who attracted everyone around her, and they responded to her with so much love,” said Valencia.

Yet, life was about to take a tragic turn for the Campbells. When she was just three months old, Kayla died very suddenly from a traumatic medical event. As one might expect, her death was a devastating shock to the family and very difficult for them to accept. Bereft members of the family reacted differently – some withdrew, others cried continuously, and still others functioned in a haze of grief.

In the midst of gathering her bearings, Valencia had decisions to make. Her semester at Palm Beach State College was about to begin. Now one month after her daughter’s death, Valencia had become extremely anxious and depressed, rarely leaving the house. She made the decision to continue with her education as planned, hoping that focusing on something outside of her pain would help break the downward spiral of depression and anxiety she was experiencing.

At school, she attended a class on grief, hoping that it would offer some relief. Someone attending that class recommended that she contact Hospice of Palm Beach County for professional bereavement counseling. She called that day, and it was a call that would change her life.

“If it were not for Hospice of Palm Beach County’s bereavement program, I don’t know if I’d be here today,” confided Valencia. “I felt like I was drowning in the sadness. I just couldn’t accept that my baby wasn’t coming back.” Working with a bereavement counselor, Valencia learned to cope with her stress and depression. She gradually learned to accept Kayla’s death and found ways to deal with it. She also came to understand that everyone deals with grief differently, which helped her family’s healing process.

“Now I know that Kayla is part of me - and that comfort will never go away. Feelings of loss come and go, but I have healthy ways of coping with them,” Valencia continued. “I hope that everyone who is struggling with the loss of a loved one will reach out for the help available at Hospice of Palm Beach County. It can make such a difference if you allow them to help you. I am not unique. If I can do it, anyone can.”

Valencia, Jonathan, and Cornel

Today, Valencia feels like a blessed person. In appreciation of the support of Hospice of Palm Beach County, her professors, family and friends, she set the goal of becoming a social worker to help others. Now, two years after Kayla’s death, she will complete her bachelor’s degree at FAU in 2012 and immediately pursue a Master’s in Social Work. She plans to get her doctorate. “I could never repay everyone who has helped me. Their efforts have shaped my determination and success today. No matter what, I promised myself I would never give up,” added Valencia.