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| Fran Loess receiving her 2003 National Hospice Award with then Wayne County Hospice Directors Carol McKiernan and Beki McCurdy. |
Last year the 221st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Detroit approved an overture to convene a team of Presbyterians to produce a pastoral and educational booklet giving guidance on end-of-life issues. This overture was the outcome of the pastoral struggle raised by the increase in the technological choices facing patients and their families at the end of their lives as well as physician-assisted suicide in five states and several nations.
This coming Sunday, June 14, we will engage the "end-of-life" conversation with Bob Grover, full time chaplain for what is now Life Care Hospice, as our guest preacher. Also on Sunday we will have copies of our Session approved Westminster Guide to Funeral/Memorial Services.
Having Bob with us on Sunday also gives us the opportunity to reflect on the beginning years of Wayne County Hospice, now called Life Care Hospice, and the advocacy work of Westminster member Fran Loess. In this Wooster Daily Record article Loess to receive national hospice award published on July 31, 2003, reporter Stephanie Kandel described the foundational work of Fran, for which she earned the 2003 Volunteers are the Foundation of Hospice Award.
WOOSTER The hospice movement took hold in Fran Loess's heart even before it took hold in Wayne County.
A hospice volunteer for a quarter of a century, Loess will be honored this weekend with the 2003 Volunteers are the Foundation of Hospice Award.
Those who nominated her for the award contend Loess is the perfect example of the foundation of hospice. She was one of a small, tireless and fiercely determined group of people who established hospice care in the county more than 20 years ago.
It was a heart-wrenching experience in 1975 that sparked her interest in hospice.
"We had a family crisis," she explained quietly. "Our 15-year-old son developed what turned out to be Reye Syndrome. ... We almost lost him several times,"
He was in a coma for 15 days and eventually pulled through, and the experience had a profound impact on Loess.
"A lot of those people did not bring their children home," she said of the families she met while her son was hospitalized.
The work of Loess and others paid off when Hospice of Wayne County was incorporated and began serving patients in 1982. Loess was among the first volunteers commissioned by hospice.
She's had 35 assignments since then, from a 5-year-old girl to elderly men and women. Being there to help people die with grace and peace, and to help families with the time, has been a transforming experience, she said.
Hospice volunteers can find themselves doing any of myriad tasks, from medical care to housework to sitting silently and holding a hand.
"Oh, I've scrubbed floors, and oh I've learned so much," Loess said, alight with the lessons and stories she's garnered from the people she's served.
"I am who I am today because of them," she said. "There isn't any way I resemble the person who I was in 1975, so it's an evolution that's very precious to me."
At age 75, Loess is a gentle personality with a soft expression and a delightful laugh who said she hopes to help where she can and continue her volunteerism with hospice. She is thoroughly humbled by the thought of receiving such a prestigious award.
"I'm just in shock," Loess said. "I'm stunned. It's just hard for me to believe."
She will receive the award Saturday in Columbus at a luncheon as part of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Conference.
"We're just thrilled," said fellow volunteer Mary Jane Gustafson, who was one of Loess's nominators. "She's a special person."
Hospice personnel and fellow volunteers who nominated Loess for the award referred to her as the "founding mother" and "mother of Hospice of Wayne County," lauding her dedication, generosity, enthusiasm and skill.
"In 1982 when Hospice of Wayne County, Ohio, served its first patient, Fran was already a veteran," wrote Hospice Volunteer Coordinator Rebecca McCurdy in her nomination of Loess. "In 2003, as I write these words, Fran's service continues with the enthusiasm of a new convert, but with the depth and skill that her years of experience have earned her."
"Fran not only works hard fulfilling her volunteer assignments but also continually models the basic ideals of hospice care in all her interactions with patients, families, team members and the community," wrote Executive Director Carol McKiernan.
"Every hospice needs a Fran Loess," Gustafson wrote.
I will see you in worship on Sunday as we engage life itself.
Blessings,
Dries
Christian Children's Home of Ohio's Third Annual Great Grill-Off is Sunday, June 14, from 12:30-4:00 p.m. at 2685 Armstrong Road, Wooster. The event includes a burger tasting contest from area restaurants and teams, picnic foods, live music, children's games and crafts, hayrack rides, Poplar Ridge Stables open house and miniature horse rides. Admission is free; simply make a monetary donation at the gate. Info and registration for this charity event to support CCHO's Christian mission to hurting children and families is at 
