Even during a public health emergency, hospice and palliative care professionals rise to the challenge of providing compassionate, person-centered care in the community. Heart ‘n Home Hospice shares how dedicated volunteers fulfilled a special wish for a patient.
“Janice Schroeder started doing needlework when she was young. She worked with her grandma, making samplers when she was 12 years old. As time went on, she learned to knit, crochet, and do needlepoint. She believes a person’s hands should be busy. Even now as an 89-year-old, who has trouble seeing and is unable to remember how to “cast on” for knitting, she still fidgets with something in her hands, sometimes just her blanket, but always something,” Janice’s daughter Sue Richard shares.
Sue continues, “She began the Jungle Needlepoint project about 10 years ago. Janice has never done anything halfheartedly, so she purchased the expensive kit, had a needlework table made, and began her project. There was no way Janice could foresee her husband’s need for her constant attention was coming. Her husband, LeRoy, had a degenerative eye disease, as well as other health issues. He passed away, at 97 years old, after 40 years of marriage to Janice, in July 2019. Although she had a few years of working on the project, she just hasn’t been able to find the energy to start on it again.
This needlepoint project has made many moves and has been in Janice’s mind, but still, her body just was not able to continue it. Now, the wonderful Volunteers at Heart ‘n Home have taken on this massive project and have already put countless hours into it. Janice would love to see the project finished before her time is up, but she understands what a big challenge it is to find the time to work on something so time-consuming.”
In September, Janice was able to see the progress being made on the project.
Since then, the faithful Heart ‘n Home Volunteers, have completed her project. Volunteer Jan put in 50 hours of work then passed the project on.
Volunteer LaDonna took over the project and completed it, putting in 150 hours. These two ladies made over 71,000 stitches and put in 200 hours that fulfilled Janice’s wish to have this needlepoint completed so that it could be enjoyed by others.
Once it was completed, Janice’s daughter, Sue, was able to deliver the needlepoint to her mother. Janice was thrilled to see the piece finished. She reminisced about how she bought the kit from a “beautiful shop” in Newport, Oregon. She chose the piece because she liked the birds on it. Sue is going to hang the needlepoint in her mother’s room to enjoy.
Janice’s family is very, very grateful to the volunteers for taking on the needlepoint project, and they appreciate every single person who has put their hearts and souls into it. This is going to be a wonderful heirloom for Janice’s family. Thank you LaDonna and Jan!
You can watch Sue deliver the finished piece to her mother.
If you would like to share the creative ways your hospice and palliative care team is caring for patients amid the COVID-19 crisis, please send us your photos and stories so you can be featured in the #hapcFacesOfCaring campaign.
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