Sunset Home Assisted Living, 510920 Highway 95, Bonners Ferry, just north of Three Mile, will unveil a gift to the community, from the community, at a very special open house for their beautiful new hospice suite from 5 to 8 p.m. today.
“This has been needed in our community for a long time,” center administrator Nathan Isaac said of Sunset Home’s new hospice suite … a beautiful space wherein the dying are afforded dignity and comfort, those who love them meaningful final moments and fond farewells.
Having a dedicated hospice suite does not a hospice care facility make. Nor is that the intent. Sunset Home administration did not let go their core mission or concede their guiding values for the potential opportunity of profit. They did not lose sight of fostering a sense of belonging and well-being in every moment.
Quite the opposite.
It’s possible you missed those seven quiet and demur words in the opening paragraph, “a gift to the community, from the community.”
That’s because to date, transforming the space and adding the furnishings has cost Sunset Home nothing to pass along as costs — community fundraisers proved highly successful, memorial donations from families grateful for a staff convinced that residents are family, not just people needing taken care of’. Local businesses have been generous as well, especially Beck’s Furniture, who provided most of the furnishings that are both comfortable and beautiful.
The suite consisting of a care room complete with a mini-kitchen and an adjoining guest room for family provide the space, physicians and nurses provided by hospice care agencies or through the patient’s medical provider bring the care, and Isaac said he is hoping Sunset Homes can provide the space on a donation basis, sparing the family another costly bill that pour down in a deluge in the most trying of times.
“We’re not sure how long we might sustain it, but we hope to continue using donations rather than set costs and fees. Instead of a bill, I’d prefer offering an opportunity to make a donation, to carry the community’s generosity forward.
