Taylor's Story

The film "Taylor's Story" is a testimonial created for fundraising and educational purposes at Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro (HPCG).  In celebration of the agency's 25th anniversary, HPCG conducted a capital campaign, focusing on endowment.  Leigh Sudbrink, parent of deceased Kids Path patient, Taylor Sudbrink, had volunteered to serve as a member of the Campaign Cabinet and to give voice to the need for palliative care for children.  While passionate about this cause, Leigh felt uncertain about her ability to share her story in large group settings, especially among friends and neighbors.  Paul Russ, Director of Resource Development, suggested creating a video featuring the Sudbrink's family's description of the role Kids Path played in Taylor's illness and death and the family's healing journey.

Leigh's articulate understanding of the case for support is evident in her testimony.  As a cabinet member, Leigh speaks from the case statement crafted for the campaign and from the heart.  Her messages are so intertwined, they become seamless.  She clearly states how HPCG meets the unique needs of our community by offering pediatric palliative care and bereavement counseling even when reimbursement sources are limited.  Her understanding of the case, spoken in simple and meaningful words, enhanced the video's impact.  Leigh's poignant and uplifting closing is both surprising and understandable, capturing the true value of palliative care.

Click here to View "Taylor's Story."

Leigh Sudbrink
HPCG 25th Anniversary Campaign Cabinet

A Personal Journey

I will be forever grateful to its staff, its volunteers and its donors – people like you.

After 26 years of marriage, my husband Bill faced the greatest challenge in his life – a serious illness. I had survived cancer, and we thought he would too. So when Bill lost his fight, the children and I didn’t see it coming and our family was blindsided. Thanks to Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro, however, Bill died comfortably and peacefully.   

I had no idea how the kids and I would be impacted. The hardest part was watching the children. Again, Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro was there to help. Through Kids Path, my three children were taught to grieve in a healthy and meaningful way. Regarding my own grief, I didn’t think I had time for it, but it smacked me in the face. I was so busy with the children that I didn’t realize I needed to do my grieving as a wife. But Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro’s Counseling and Education Center was there to gently remind me to take care of myself.   

That was nearly five years ago. My children are growing into young adults, and I now have a lifelong friendship with Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro.  

Theresa O’Rourke Lee
2005 HPCG Campaign Chair

HPCG has Touched My Family and My Co-Workers

I have learned both personally and professionally, about this comforting presence known as Hospice care. That’s why I am honored to support this organization financially and through my volunteer service. 

One morning last fall, my mother woke to discover that her husband of 57 years had died. She did not call me. She did not call one of my siblings.  She did not call 911. Instead, she called my father’s hospice nurse. You see, a relationship was forged during the weeks of my father’s care that instilled a level of trust and comfort in my 80-year-old mother that was profound. The Hospice team managed his care, and she naturally turned to them first.

My father’s illness and death was a new frontier for our entire family. While my parents had raised three successful and independent children, none of us had had a direct encounter with death and dying. We could have been completely lost in this new and strange territory. However, throughout the entire journey, our team of Hospice professionals was “ahead of us,” anticipating our needs and preparing the way, sharing and understanding our family crisis.  

Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro has become very significant in my life both personally and professionally – first, through my father’s death and second, through my company’s involvement with Hospice’s TLC in the Workplace® training program. This program taught our company’s leaders important skills to help the members of our “business family” address their special grief and care giving needs. Repeatedly during uncertain times, Hospice has been a resource for me, my family and my co-workers through un-chartered territory. 

Through this guidance I have learned to be a care giver, and perhaps more challenging; I have learned to be a receiver of care. Friends and family want to reach out when there is a crisis. If we do not receive those offerings, we miss the full impact of their gifts of love and friendship. 

Larry B. Roland
HPCG Board Member

Inspired to Give

Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro has long recognized that providing comfort involves far more than care for the body. Comfort also includes care for the mind and the spirit. Hospice team members listen for the cues patients may share about their spiritual journeys, recognizing that these experiences take many forms and unfold in a variety of ways. 

Some hospice patients travel their paths in a very private, personal way, while others find they need a guide. Within the hospice team, this guide is most often the chaplain, a traveling companion for listening, affirming, and offering blessings along the way.

Seven years ago when HPCG was raising money to build a home for its Kids Path program, supporter Jane Reynolds read an article about HPCG’s chaplaincy program. “Recognizing the value of helping patients, young and old, face the mysteries of life through spiritual guidance resonated with me,” Jane recalled. “I have found great strength in my own spiritual journey, and I wanted to be sure that hospice patients and their caregivers and children served by Kids Path have an opportunity to explore their understanding of faith with the professional guidance of a chaplain.”

From the article, Jane understood that Kids Path services would require ongoing support from the community. She recognized the vulnerability of extending the chaplaincy program to our young palliative care patients and grieving children because there are so few reimbursement sources available for Kids Path services. Jane was inspired but wanted more information about the workings of HPCG. She made an appointment to see our work first hand. Following a tour of our campus and meeting with our staff, she made a decision that would have a lasting impact on our community:  a gift to establish the Royce and Jane Reynolds Endowment Fund for Chaplaincy. 

Since creating the fund in 2000, Jane has continued to make annual contributions to help it grow. Because of this support, HPCG is able to employ three chaplains to meet the needs of all individuals under our care who request spiritual assistance.

“This is a beautiful example of an HPCG supporter connecting their passion with a specific need of the organization,” said Paul Russ, Director of Resource Development. “We are grateful for Jane’s visionary leadership and hope others will be inspired by her.” 

Jane Reynolds
HPCG Volunteer
Summit Society member

Honoring My Nephew

Long-time HPCG supporter and gardening volunteer, Louise Chubbs, wanted to make a significant gift to remember her nephew, Everett Alan Miles.  Along with his mother and father, Louise had cared for him during his illness, both at home and in the hospital. Alan died at the age of 32, at home, surrounded by his family and the things he loved.

In 1995, Louise chose to honor Alan with a gift to the Beacon Place capital campaign to purchase a beautiful stained glass window for the quiet room. Louise noted, “I felt that the stained glass window in this spiritual space within Beacon Place would speak to what Alan was all about – his beliefs and his faith.”

Many patients and their loved ones have benefited from Louise’s generosity as they have gazed at the window’s peaceful image during their times of quiet in the midst of difficult moments.

In 2002, Louise again sought a way to ensure that the memory of Alan would be a legacy. As a volunteer, Louise had learned that many patients come to Beacon Place without the means to obtain needed supplies or items of comfort that most people take for granted. Louise thought that making a gift to endow a fund in Alan’s name would be a living legacy. “This is what Alan would have been doing if her were alive,” Louise said. “He cared for other people. I believe everyone should die with dignity and Alan would have agreed.”

The Everett Alan Miles Endowment Fund for indigent patient needs at Beacon Place was established within HPCG’s Summit Society, a special recognition for those who have remembered HPCG in their estate plans or those who have established a named, endowed fund, such as Louise did.

Louise encourages her family and friends to contribute to the fund for special occasions such as anniversaries, birthdays, or holidays. “I want us to have more to work with,” Louise said. “I want to help as many people as possible.”
               
Louise M. Chubbs
HPCG Volunteer
Summit Society member

Honoring Our HPCG Connection

Jerry and Shirley Shaver say they’ve learned a lot from being volunteers at HPCG.  They feel it’s been so rewarding to come in contact with some of the patients, families, staff and other volunteers, that they want to give something back in return.

Jerry and Shirley have established a charitable remainder trust in the name of HPCG, making the Shavers charter members of the Summit Society. “We believe in what HPCG is doing,” Jerry said. “When you pass on you want to know you have done something good. That’s the bottom line.”

“Hospice has taught us that death is not the worst thing,” Shirley said. “We are more comfortable around that subject,” Jerry agreed. Hospice work has sort of become a family tradition with the Shavers. Their daughter is now a hospice nurse in Orlando, Florida.

“Hospice is her real love,” says Shirley. “She was beside herself when she heard of the charitable remainder trust.”

Jerry & Shirley Shaver
HPCG Volunteers

Investing in Education

Many lives in our community have been touched by Dr. John Alexander Lusk, III. As an oncologist he has provided care for hundreds of patients and their families, always seeking to improve his ability to provide the best care possible. As a visionary, he was one of the original volunteers to serve on the steering committee that initiated Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro for our community. In fact, he made the first patient referral to the agency.  And as a philanthropist, he and his wife Barbara are ensuring that the future citizens of our community continue to receive the best care possible.
 
“Giving,” says Dr. Lusk, “is not about money, it is about investing in the future of the people who make up our community. It is for the sake of our children and grandchildren.”
 
He credits his sense of giving to his parents. Growing up in rural Alabama, Dr. Lusk recalls, “My parents didn’t have much money, but they donated their time,” adding, “giving, whether through time or money enhances the lives of our fellow human beings.”
 
In 2003, upon his semi-retirement from HPCG, the Board of Directors conferred upon Dr. Lusk the title of Medical Director Emeritus and established the John Alexander Lusk, III Endowment for Hospice and Palliative Care Education.  “The honor was a complete surprise and truly captured one of my passions – education,” he said.
 
He and his wife continue to make annual gifts to the endowment. Their vision is to see it grow, making sure the staff at HPCG always have the resources needed to learn new skills in order to serve their patients better.
 
“It is through education that we can do all the things we can do,” said Lusk. “From the computers we rely on everyday to new medicines and treatments. Someone has studied and learned and made all these things possible.” Again, Lusk credits his parents for his appreciation of education, “My father always said that the most important profession in the world is Teaching.”
 
An integral part of HPCG’s history, Dr. Lusk is humble about his role in the quiet revolution called hospice. “I was trained in a very traditional delivery of medical care, and in the 1970s as the hospice movement began to take shape in the United States, it was seen as quite unorthodox,” said Lusk. But Dr. Lusk recognized the value of this unknown territory – “Fundamentally, I realized that hospice care would help me provide better care for my patients.”
 
Today, many take for granted the availability of hospice care. It has become part of our nation’s continuum of medical care. But it would not have without the support of early volunteers and donors. The future of HPCG also relies on the continued support of people’s time and money. 

“Building endowment is incredibly important for our future,” said Lusk. “Endowment ensures the continuity of hospice services for our friend and neighbors who will need them in the future, as well as for our children.” 

John A. Lusk III, MD
HPCG Medical Director Emeritus