Balloons released in memory of hospice patients
Family and friends of Assured Hospice patients who died during the last year gathered to remember them with a memorial that included releasing balloons.
MOSES LAKE - It's a fact of human existence that the last ride is only one way. For the family and friends of the patient it's a new road, and it'll be bumpy.
Assured Hospice held a memorial service for those families and friends to remember their loved ones, and help them handle the bumps along the way.
Hospice workers read the names of the patients who died since last November, and rang a bell after each name. After the memorial attendees were invited outside the Moses Lake Civic Center to release balloons in memory of their family and friends.
Hospice is designed for people who received a diagnosis of terminal illness and to help the family and friends around them after the patient dies.
Patricia Law and daughters Robin Prchal and Amy Jones came to the memorial to remember their husband and dad Jerry Law. It helped with coping process, they said.
"It's group therapy," Patricia Law said, a chance to meet other people in the same circumstances.
"Listening to all the names," Prchal said.
"And that's just one hospice unit," Jones said.
Jennifer Ruiz agreed that memorial helped with the grieving process. She said she would recommend hospice services for anyone, any family, facing a terminal diagnosis. "They (the hospice team) were wonderful."
It's not just coping with the diagnosis, there's also a lot to do, Prchal said, and the hospice team helped the family with the sometimes overwhelming details. "They hold your hand. In more ways than one," she said.
"They become friends," Law said.