Paul & Betty’s Story

Paul: “Personally, I think everything has been extremely good.  I will be honest – some of my friends and myself have always thought of Hospice as being a place where you would have one foot in the grave and the other one ready to go!  I find that Hospice is more like a 5-star hotel. It was lovely.

When I first heard about going to Hospice, I felt terrible.  I thought, “why do I have to go to Hospice?” I’ve now been up there to stay for respite care.  When I went up for the first time, everyone told me it would be wonderful, but I still was a bit unsure.  It was ok though.  Everyone including Betty said that it was lovely.  My wife and daughter took me up there, and although I have a swag of things wrong with me, one of my main concerns was that I could have oxygen there.  Don came from the hospital and I had an oxygen machine outside my room.  I was happy about that.

I woke up in the morning and looked out at the gardens – it was so beautiful with all the trees, I grabbed my camera and took a couple of photos so I can enjoy them at home. It was Easter Sunday and people were hiding Easter eggs in the garden for the children who were visiting.  The ensuite bathroom in my room was a lovely size – it was like being in a hotel.  I didn’t have blister-packs for my medicines. The doctors and nurses knew what I was taking and they would come and give them to me when I needed them.  It’s a bit like a hospital, but it doesn’t feel like one.

My wife is a great gardener and looks after our 1/4-acre section on her own.  She’s done everything. The respite care meant that I could go to Hospice and Betty could have some time to do things while I was up there.  Now that I’m home, the nurses keep in touch with phone calls, just ringing to see how I’m doing.  I like that.”

Betty: “I couldn’t fault it at all – they looked after things extremely well.  It was so nice – the day my daughter and I took Paul up there, I said to Paul, “you can go home, and we’ll stay in this lovely room.”