Hospice volunteers help grieving families

It’s a place where people say goodbye.

The Sangre de Cristo Hospice center is the largest hospice provider in southern Colorado. It covers 20,000 square miles and assists 250-275 dying patients at any time.

But staff and families of patients agree: the excellent level of care couldn’t be given without the help of their more than 350 volunteers.

Remember Elmer Melchi? He was the war veteran whose dying wish was to be reunited with his wife one last time.

The Sangre de Cristo Hospice helped make that wish come true.

As Melchi nears his final day, his son Garry couldn’t be more thankful for the care he’s received.

“There’s compassion beyond belief here and angels live in here. They truly do,” Garry Melchi said through tears. “Everyone has been so wonderful and it helps you face it.”

Garry Melchi talked about the staff and volunteers helping to hold him together through a smile or a hug.

“They care for each one of us, like a family,” he said.

He isn’t the only one who couldn’t say enough good about the people working at the center.

Mary Jean Curry was so touched with how her husband was treated when he died three years ago, that she has been volunteering at the center ever since.

“It was the most wonderful end-of-life experience you could have. All I can say is every need was taken care of plus needs I didn’t even know he had,” Curry said.

Curry remembered how her husband didn’t want to eat or drink, until he had a craving for a peanut buster parfait.

She said the staff immediately went and got him one, which made him “happy as a clam”.

Because the center is a nonprofit, they heavily rely on the hundreds of volunteers to be able to provide free care to people who need it.

“The people who have nothing, the center doesn’t ask for anything from them. If they had to pay salaries for all of these people here, they could never do that,” Jean McFarland, another volunteer, said. “The volunteers make it possible for everyone to be served here.”

The volunteers also make it possible for families to have time to focus on grieving.

“It’s hard if you’re doing it all yourself,” Garry Melchi said. “And this just relieves that little bit. You’re not grieving any less but you’re here and able to get the help.”

To learn more about the services offered, click here: http://socohospice.org/