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One of my favorite parts of this job is picking up the phone to say thank you. A recent call is one I won't forget.
A woman who had lived at Celia's House passed away, and I called her son to thank him. As trustee of her estate, he had carried out her wish to leave us a generous gift. Years earlier, his mother-in-law had also been a Celia's House resident, so when it came time to find a place for his mom, they already knew what we could offer. Even so, it came down to the wire. She was about to move somewhere else entirely when, in the last hour, a room became available at Celia's House. He told me she was "grateful in the first ten minutes."
She had spent her career as a nurse, so she knew good care when she received it. Our staff remembered her, too — how sweet she was, how she wanted shrimp every day, and how Celia’s House Chef James even made her a stocking celebrating her French-German heritage that holiday season. At her honoring ceremony, staff cried, and her son was the one handing out tissues.
Not long after she arrived at Celia’s House, she asked her son to add Southern Oregon Friends of Hospice to her estate plans, wanting to make sure other families could have what hers did.
Not all of us can leave a gift like that through our estate, but you can help make sure Celia's House is there for the next family.
For as little as $10 a month, you can make an impact.
Visit sofriendsofhospice.org/donate-online and select "Monthly" under Frequency. Steady, small gifts add up to exactly what this family wanted: a place where goodbyes can be personal and joyful.
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