Since 2007 Hospice of Northwest Ohio has had a program called Positive Memories, meant to assist patients and families achieve end-of-life goals or wishes. The program was developed in response to Hospice of Northwest Ohio care staff who were assisting with creating these experiences on their own, and at their own expense for many years.
These events are typically small, but meaningful. Over the past several months we have had the privilege of planning a wedding for a patient in one of our inpatient centers, assisting with a luncheon that reunited a hall-of-fame basketball coach with former players, arranging a special visit with a firefighter and a patient whom he had helped, coordinating a ‘last’ motorcycle ride for a patient who had been an avid rider, purchasing flowers to recognize a wedding anniversary, creating fingerprint charms for the children of a young patient, delivering a special dinner to a patient living in an extended care facility, setting up a video call between a former Toledo Zoo volunteer, the elephant handlers and the baby elephant at the zoo…and the list goes on.
While not all of our patients utilize the program as their families and friends have oftentimes already stepped in to meet the goal, for those who express a desire to accomplish or experience something as end-of-life approaches, we help create memories that families and friends will hold dear forever.