Hospice lights up holiday tree
Love Lights Tree ceremony held at Grand Central MallBy JEFFREY SAULTON jsaulton@newsandsentinel.com
VIENNA- As part of its observance of National Hospice Month, Housecalls Hospice lighted it Hospice Love Lights Tree in a ceremony Tuesday at Grand Central Mall.
Lea Ann Mason, patient care representative, said donations collected by the hospice foundation during the Christmas season and throughout the year help patients in the Mid-Ohio Valley.
Mason said the hospice movement is growing across the country
"A new study from the National Hospice and Pallative Organization stated that in 2007, 38.5 percent of deaths in the United States were hospice patients, up 2.5 percent from 2006," she said. "There are 4,700 hospice providers and they took care of 1.4 million patients last year."
Tuesday's main speaker was Grace Angelilli, whose husband, Art, is a hospice patient. Angelilli, a retired nurse who worked at St. Joseph's and Camden-Clark Memorial hospitals and served as an Army nurse, said she helped to start the local hospice organization in 2001. She worked as a home health nurse for 16 years.
"I was one of the people who helped start this back in 2001," she said. "We served an eight-county area and provide both skilled and unskilled care for people to die in their homes around those they love."
Angelilli said her husband of 45 years became a patient after his health began to fail after his first open-heart surgery after she retired.
"I decided I couldn't do this alone," she said. "I asked the doctor for a referral," she said. "That was when the angel landed and they do all they can to help us."
Angelilli said each day when her husband wakes up he wants to know who will be coming that day.
"He loves to joke with them," she said. "He will give them a hard time and they give it back with words of comfort and peace. We can call for help anytime and they are there.
"They are truly angels among us."
Marcia Metz, administrator of Housecalls Hospice, said the Christmas holiday season is a trying time for those who have lost a family member or close friend. She said the hospice program asks people to remember to light four candles in memory of those they have lost.
Those are the candle of grief, which shows the depth of love, the candle of courage to confront sorrow, the candle of memories good and that are shared, and the last is the light of love.
Metz said it is important to allow the hurt to heal.
"Just remember, each day it will get better," she said.
