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“Words cannot express how grateful our family is for the love and care your members have given to our family. Beginning with my mother for the past year to the three weeks you tended to our father. From everything you provided to tend to their physical needs, to all of the information given to help us take care of our parents. We were very touched by the representation of your office for our father’s funeral. Many thanks for all you have done and continue to do.”
“Everyone did a wonderful job. Special thanks to the nurses and aides. They were great to us. Everyone was so kind and compassionate.”
“On behalf of our family, especially our mother, we would like to thank you for the professional way you took care of our mother and the kindness of your hearts when we needed it the most. Thank you very much. Thank you to all the nurses, aides, social workers, and doctors that make this great organization work this way.”
“With deep appreciation and heartfelt thanks to every member of the staff that helped us in every way possible, we are very grateful. God bless all of you.”
…Patient of Hospice Associates and Spouse
“It means a lot to us to know that your thoughts were with us in our loss. We’d also like to thank you for the lovely card that you sent as an expression of your condolences and for taking such good care of our mom before she passed. It is the thoughtfulness of friends such as you that help us find strength in the days ahead as we think of and miss our Mom.”
“Thank you very much for your concern for our family with the death of my beloved 93-year-old mother. I am at “peace” knowing she is in heaven. Also we “thank God” for Hospice Associates! You have been like family to all of us and had us well prepared!”
“A special thank you for the compassionate care and medical guidance you’ve given to my family and me. You have helped in ways you will never know. Again thanks and God bless each and every one of you.”
“Words cannot express my gratitude and thanks to you all for the wonderful things you did for me and my mother. I shall always remember every little single and big thing that each one of you did for me. May God continue to shine on each one of you, for truly you are Angles of God.”
…Daughter and Grandchildren
“Thank you for the love and support you gave our mother and our family during this difficult time. Words could never express the gratitude we have for all you have done.”
…Daughter and Siblings
“My Friends at Hospice Associates, I want to thank you for all the love and great care you gave to my beloved husband and to me. Many times I didn’t think I could go on another day, but you kept me going. Thank you for being with us and sharing our sorrow.”
…Wife and Children
“Dear Hospice Friends, Thank you for the encouraging letters that you have sent me. I especially enjoyed the list of ideas on surviving the holiday season….I am also grateful for the good care you administered to my husband in the last months of his life.”
…Wife of Patient
“Words cannot express my gratitude and thanks to you all for the wonderful things you did for me and my mother. I shall always remember every little single and big thing that each one of you did for me. May God continue to shine on each one of you, for truly you are Angles of God.”
…Daughter and Grandchildren
“My mother was 88. She had brain damage from a fall, and she never did come out of it. She got worse each day. She’d spent 7 weeks in the hospital. We stayed with her 24 hours a day, we didn’t leave her. There was always somebody there. We spent the hurricane at the hospital. I had hurt my foot, there was no way I could exchange places with my sister, so I spent four days and four days in the pitch-black garage. By Friday, we decided we were going home, hoping it was still there.
The doctor said, she’s not going to get better, so we knew that. I told them, I want to take my mother home. I didn’t want to leave my mother in the hospital, I wanted to take her home with us. We were so glad we did.
We only had our mother home for two days, but the service we had from Hospice Associates was wonderful. She came home on Tuesday, and the bed was waiting for her. For those two days, they showed us everything we needed to do, how to bathe her, how not to put too much compress, everything. They showed us what we could do and what we should do, and they explained everything we needed to do. I used to feed her. Unfortunately it wasn’t for a very long, time, just a few days, but they sure did help us. Anything we needed, they had for us.
We had never experienced anything like that before, and immediately they came to help us. They were right there when we needed them, to the very end. When she passed away, they were right there—they were holding our hands.”
“My mom went into congestive heart failure when we got back from being evacuated after Hurricane Katrina. She was 90 years old. The hospital wanted to go into all kinds of surgeries, do all these heroic things, but she was not looking to have stomach tubes inserted or colon surgery. Somewhere along the line, someone suggested Hospice Associates, and they were absolutely incredible. I don’t know how I could have done it without them.
There was one time when my mother was sick on a weekend—it was our 50th anniversary. They came out and took care of her. You couldn’t ask for anything better than that.
But it wasn’t just her healthcare, it was her emotional care, too. Edgar evidently asked her if she had any last wishes, and one of them was to thank my sister and me for allowing her to make our wedding dresses. For my mother’s 91st birthday celebration, he came home with two of the most beautiful poems about it. It was just wonderful. Divine guidance must have been guiding his hand when he wrote them because the two poems he wrote described us as though he’d known us all our lives. He must have really listened to her—it was one of the most beautiful things.
He had these poems written on a beautiful piece of stationary, with silver borders. It was so beautiful what he did. When he gave it to my mom, she was so excited. She said, ‘This is my best birthday ever.’
That was October 19. She died on November 10th. The day she died, they helped her pass in total comfort. That was so important to us. And that was our experience. It was all beautiful.”
“We started using Hospice Associates services in June 2005. My mother was very ill at the hospital and not getting well. They were keeping her alive on an IV. She had gone into the hospital around March, and they were letting her go home. She had blood clots in both legs, so we thought she wasn’t ready to come home, but they put her in a wheelchair and discharged her.
When we got to the parking lot, my mother fell and had a stroke. Ever since then we noticed she was deteriorating. When we first brought her, she walked into the hospital. But now she was strapped in a wheelchair and in long-term rehab, and we saw that she wasn’t getting any better. She was having a lot of pain, and they told us there was nothing they could do for her. She continued getting blood clots. There was no quality of life. We just didn’t see it getting any better. She was conscious, and she kept telling us she wanted to go home. She’d put me in charge of decisions long before, and so my brothers and sisters and I decided to take her home and go with a hospice program.
My mother didn’t know anything about hospice. She didn’t know she was at the end, I don’t think. When we got her home and brought her into the living room, her eyes opened and she said, “I want something to drink.” For the first time in a while, she was able to drink. We had a good month with her—she laughed, she ate ice cream…whatever she wanted, we gave her. We kept her on meds to keep her from being in pain. We saw such a dramatic change in her the moment she knew she was home. I don’t think we would have had that quality time with her if she had stayed in the hospital.
The first week we brought her home, she called all of the family to the bed, and she just kept trying to kiss us, and she just kept saying, I love y’all so much, I’m just so grateful for all of you. She may not have known about hospice, but she knew she was where she wanted to be.
Hospice was so wonderful, they kept us informed of what to expect next, which is so important, and something we never got in the hospital. We knew what to look for—we knew when her time when her time was drawing near. We pretty much knew down to the day.
I would do it again. Everyone was so wonderful. Demetria was our nurse, and we absolutely love her. We stay in touch, in fact. We laughed with my mother, we told stories together. They kept telling us not to be fooled by it, but she bounced back. The night she died, we were still talking to her. All the family was around her, we all sat at the kitchen table, we brought her into the kitchen so she could see all of us. We took turns sleeping in her room. She was at peace. You couldn’t have put a price on that.
I think most people have good experiences with hospice, but I think we had a really special experience. At the hospital, we never felt like we knew what was going on. At home, we knew what to do. I found with hospice, the only thing that mattered was the comfort of the patient. And that’s what families want.”
“My mother had lymphoma. It was hard, because I had double knee surgery two years ago and had lots of health problems myself. The hospital told us about hospice, and they were unbelievable. They were fantastic. Anytime I needed anything, I would call, and they would tell me what to do. They were really good about helping me bathe my mother, things like that.
Toward the end, when my mother was dying, they were really great. They talked to my sister and I about what was going to happen next, told us to look out for this, look out for that. When my mother did die, they took care of everything—they called coroners office, everything—which was good, because my sister and I kind of lost it then. I had had her with me since January, and I was totally with my mother all through Katrina. We had to go four different places, and it was so hard. They even tried to find us a place to stay after the storm. We wound up staying with my sister. But before that, we didn’t know what we were gonna do. Believe it or not, the Hospice people even offered us to stay in their homes. They couldn’t do enough for us. They really helped us.”
Call Us: 504-457-2200
FAX: 504-457-2207
Physician managed hospice
and palliative care