Thank you
When our mother’s health landed her in the hospital, we knew it was serious. They said weeks, not more. We were exhausted and very afraid. And then we got a call from you.
When we pictured hospice, we thought of a sort of quieter version of the hospital - nurses in scrubs, dim lights, hushed voices, an overall feeling of sadness. We didn’t know what else to expect, but we knew we couldn’t do this ourselves, at home.
It was nothing like we had imagined. It was, honestly, magical. We didn’t know that a place like yours existed and we feel so lucky that Stratford and area has this facility. We were surprised and impressed and overwhelmed, and now that our lives have settled a bit, we want to make sure we reach out and tell you how important you were to us.
Thank you. Thank you for telling us it was okay to stay, and that it was ok to go home, and that you’d call us (you did) and that it would be ok no matter what we decided (it was).
Thank you for meeting us where we were, even though we didn’t know where we were.
Thank you for looking after all of us, not just Paula – thank you for understanding so beautifully that we were there as a family and doing this together.
Thank you for the baked goods and the puzzles, and for embracing our sense of humour and never making us feel like we were too loud, too happy, or too sad.
Thank you for letting us be Paula’s children and not her caregivers.
Thank you for knowing that it was about living while she could, and not just about her dying.
As shared with us by Paula's family
The clinical care team at Rotary Hospice regularly receive heartfelt messages and cards of thanks from grateful families. Sometimes, the messages so perfectly capture the hospice experience, we ask permission to share – as we did with this one. We hope that should you ever find yourself in a similar situation you will know that, in the words of this family, a place like this exists.
