Hospice Care Helps Tri-State Families Continue Traditions and Make Memories

At Hospice of Orange & Sullivan Counties, we speak often of how hospice care alleviates strain on families by taking the responsibilities of primary care giving off relatives, thereby allowing family dynamics to retain a level of normalcy. Our nurses, aids, social workers, and volunteers go to great lengths to allow tri-state area families to keep being families. Home care is the hospice promise, and keeping that promise means providing a home setting even when patients requiring 24-hour care must leave their actual homes.

Each hospice case is special, but some cases allow Hospice of Orange & Sullivan Counties to keep its promise in innovative ways. This is evident in the Steeves family’s memories of the Kaplan Family Hospice Residence, which show how hospice allows family life to continue during final months.

“We had a family tradition,” said Sharen Steeves-Casazza, reflecting on her father’s time at the Kaplan Residence. “My mom was always the hostess for family gatherings and for Sunday dinner. As she got older and couldn’t do Sunday dinner anymore, one of us would do Sunday dinner at her house. And then, as that got more difficult, we decided to try something new. My husband and I would bring my mom to a restaurant, Fridays at one o’clock, and any of the other family members that were in the area would come. And we did that for three or four years.”

“When my dad came into hospice, we asked the director, ‘Could we have our Friday one o’clock lunches here in the [Kaplan Residence’s] family dining room?’ and they thought it was a wonderful idea,” Sharen explained. “We had our one o’clock lunches here every Friday with both my mom and my dad.”

“We celebrated a couple of the great-grandchildren’s birthday’s here,” she added. “Hospice has the ability to understand what families need, to understand what families want, and then to understand what has to be done. With hospice, you’re living your final days.”

The Steeves family’s experience with Hospice is not unusual.  Whether in family homes, nursing homes, group homes, or the Kaplan Family Hospice Residence, Hospice of Orange & Sullivan Counties takes care to ensure families form new, lasting memories of time spent with their loved ones. Learn more about the Steeves family experience https://hospiceoforange.com/when-memories-matter/.