Our Stories - Life is Precious

Accessorize, Accessorize!
Carolyn Verweyst

Jun, 2015

That is what we do our very best to create at the Merlin and Carolyn Hanson Hospice Center – memories.  Often the time is quite limited, but our volunteers and staff perform miracles again and again so that family and friends have one or two more precious memories to take home with them when they must say good bye to a loved one.

Carolyn Verweyst, a volunteer at the Hanson Hospice Center, is one of our magic makers and has several precious memories she cherishes herself.  As Carolyn told us, “If you notice my yellow earrings and think ‘they don’t go with her outfit’, I understand, but they are special earrings; they have a story.”

A family asked the Hanson Hospice Center to care for their dad for a five-day respite so the caretaker, their mom, could celebrate her 90th birthday with all of the family who were coming in from out of town. On the last day of the respite, the birthday girl came to pick up her husband. She was a perky and well-dressed 90-year old.  She wore a cute yellow dress with matching earrings. Carolyn complimented her on how fashionable she was and the earrings just made the outfit!  

When she was ready to leave our facility with her husband, she stopped at the reception desk and removed her ear rings. “I want you to have these earrings,” the woman said to Carolyn. When Carolyn protested that she could not take her earrings the woman said, “It is the least I can do to say thank you for the five days you cared for my husband.”

“Every time I wear my yellow earrings, ‘my memory’, I think of this family,” said Carolyn.