Patient Stories
- Mar 2010
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Putting pen to paper
Mom is one hundred years and seven months old. She is still at home which has been a great asset in the last six months of her life. By the time that I finish writing my 500 words, mom may be dead. She may be gone before I even begin the next paragraph, so I hastily put pen to paper.
- Mar 2010
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“Passing” graces Friendship Village PCU
Two years ago, artist Veronica “Roni” Ross lost her brother and her mother within six weeks of one another. Both spent their final days in rooms located at the end of a hallway at Hospice of the Valley’s Friendship Village PCU.
- Oct 2009
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A special wedding at Sherman Home
After a 12-year relationship, Mike Frost and Kassandra Jelosek planned their wedding and took their vows within a whirlwind 24-hour period at Hospice of the Valley’s Sherman Home.
- Jul 2009
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A wedding at Gardiner Home
Albert Speth, 75, had been planning for some time to marry Deborah Finch. With a terminal cancer diagnosis and his June admission to Hospice of the Valley’s Gardiner Home, the couple decided there was no time like the present.
- Mar 2009
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A trip to Disneyland
We are working with a very special social worker from your company named Consuelo Hidalgo. Every time she visits, it is very special. Consuelo asked my mother if she could have any wish in the world, what would that wish be? My mom responded it was to go to Disneyland with her grandchildren.
- Feb 2009
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Skinner Rides Tall in the Saddle
Skinner Meredith grew up on horses - a cowboy who lived on ranches in Wyoming, Montana and Nebraska and won second-place in a national bronc-riding contest. As a young man, he traveled the circuit as the stage-coach driver in Monte Montana's Wild West Show.
- Feb 2009
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Teen and Patient Share History Together
Hospice of the Valley patient Lula Hill and teen volunteer Eric Anderson have developed a special bond over the past four years. Eric, a senior at Chapparal High School, wrote this narrative for his application to Notre Dame University. He hopes to become a doctor.
- Jan 2009
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Giving Thanks at Sherman Home
Giving thanks at Sherman Home has become an annual tradition. In 2007, team leader Todd Koceja decided to offer a Thanksgiving meal to the staff working the holiday and to families with loved ones at the home.
- Dec 2008
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A Day of Perspective
A beautiful day I woke up to today. What a blessing my life is, but still I complain -- not out loud, but in my head.
- Dec 2008
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What Goes Around Comes Around
In March of 1986, our 17-year- old daughter, Kristen Nicoll, was diagnosed with what was then a rare form of cancer - non-osseous Ewing's sarcoma. She had surgery and went through radiation and chemotherapy.
- Nov 2008
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Teamwork Makes Citizenship Dream Come True
On the eve he was to become a United States citizen, Celerino Duran, 32, was told by his doctors at the Mayo Clinic Hospital that his neck cancer was incurable. He was referred to Hospice of the Valley.
- Nov 2008
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Wally Gets His War Medals
"Wally," my dad, enlisted in World War II and was sent to Europe as a part of the 26th Infantry Division in General Patton's 3rd Army. The fighting for my dad began in France shortly after D-Day and continued until Germany finally surrendered in April 1945.
- Oct 2008
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Horse visits Gardiner Home patient
It was just another day in the life at Gardiner Home: two Phoenix fire trucks and a horse trailer parked outside on the street, a group of fire personnel supporting a patient and family simply with their presence, and a magnificent Arabian horse named Stalina sauntering through the back gate to greet a patient on the patio.
- Aug 2008
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Musical Celebrity Visits Phoenix Baptist patient
Christina Francis, a licensed practical nurse at Hospice of the Valley's Phoenix Baptist palliative care unit, knew that her patient Steve's favorite band was the "Tower of Power." He loved to listen to Emilio Castillo, the leader of the band.
- Jul 2008
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75 Years
Lloyd Pearsall, 98 and Henrietta Pearsall, 96, celebrated 75 years of marriage on June 24. The couple, both HOV patients, had started their lives together in their small Michigan hometown eight decades ago.
- Jul 2008
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Dementia Patient Goes Out Singing
Francis Hanken, 94, had advanced dementia and was practically nonresponsive when she was admitted to Sherman Home. But she left this life with a light in her eye, singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game with Hospice of the Valley music therapist Joel DeLaHoussaye.
- Apr 2008
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A Mothers Day Gift to Sherman Home
Laura Jones, 12, learned how to cross-stitch from her mother, Pam, during Pam's final six weeks of life at Hospice of the Valley's Sherman Home, an inpatient hospice home in northeast Phoenix.
