by admin | Nov 2, 2015 | Caregiving, End-of-life care, Hospice, Patients, Volunteering
StoryCorps approached Hospice Austin last fall to see if we would participate in their Legacy Project, which records stories of people whose lives have been affected by serious illness. StoryCorps is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to record, preserve, and...
by admin | Oct 14, 2015 | Uncategorized
Nurse Carol Kiehl left an indelible stamp on Hospice Austin. She was a force of nature, a whirlwind of energy and caring. She worked for Hospice Austin for over 10 years, caring for countless patients and mentoring countless staff. We lost her to cancer early this...
by admin | Jul 6, 2015 | Advance Directives, Caregiving, End-of-life care
Three months before Ellen Goodman’s father died, they didn’t talk about his recently-returned cancer. Instead, Ellen’s mother bought him a suitcase for his birthday. “I don’t know if that suitcase qualifies my family for the Denial Hall of...
by admin | Jun 29, 2015 | Hospice, Patients, Volunteering
We recently sent out a plea to staff, volunteers, and our friends on Facebook to replenish our food pantry. The Facebook post was shared by 115 of you, and seen by more 8,500 people. The results have been astounding. This is the email we received from Nancy...
by admin | Jun 10, 2015 | Uncategorized
Dear Doctor, Thank you for the excellent care you have given me. I also appreciate your honesty in letting me know when I had reached a point in my disease where you could no longer make things better. You could have waited until I had only a few weeks – or even days...
by admin | Jun 1, 2015 | Fundraising, Hospice, Uncategorized, Volunteering
What’s better than hosting a great party? Hosting a great party for a great cause. A small, committed group of women helped produce Hospice Austin’s Vino y Virtuosos party for many years. Now the group has banded back together and is hosting a new event: A Venetian...
by admin | May 27, 2015 | Bereavement, Caregiving, End-of-life care, Hospice, Uncategorized, Veterans, Volunteering
It may surprise many people to learn that 25 percent of those who die every year in the U.S. are veterans. The nation is seeing many of the veterans who served in World War II and Korea pass away, and the number of deaths of Vietnam veterans is beginning to rise. To...
by admin | Apr 21, 2015 | Being Present, Uncategorized
The previous three weeks had been hard ones. We’d gone too many miles on not enough gallons and even little comforts had been few and far between. A year-and-a-half into our travels, we were quite used to basic accommodations: small beds, lumpy mattresses, sheets...
by admin | Apr 3, 2015 | Uncategorized
Madison Irby knows all too well about loss. Her father died in a car accident when she was six years old. Her mother remembers those first terrible years — the grief, the isolation, the hiding in the house on father’s day. When Madison was 12, her mother...
by admin | Mar 12, 2015 | Fundraising, Hospice, Uncategorized
It was a nail-biting finish. Amplify Austin’s goal this year for its 24-hour online giving festival was to raise $7 million for over 500 nonprofits. Hospice Austin set the lofty goal of raising $250,000 in online donations. That goal was so lofty, in fact, that we...
