Today is Veterans Day, and we join with the rest of the nation in celebrating and saluting those who have served our country.

Mrs. Katie White holds a portrait of her husband,    Mr. Joseph C. White, who was a Tuskegee Airman and    an Alive Hospice patient.

People like Mr. Joseph C. White and Mr. James Ladd, who both served in World War II and were Alive Hospice patients.

Mrs. Katie White knew her husband, Joseph C. White, was a wonderful person when she married him. There was something she didn’t know about him, though, until after they wed in 1963. Something he had never talked about. Mr. White was one of the Tuskegee Airmen, the United States’ first squadron of African-American fighter pilots.

“He really was very proud to be a Tuskegee Airman,” Mrs. White said. “He said that he felt it was his duty to do what he did for the United States. He said he didn’t feel like the country owed him anything. (The Tuskegee Airmen) did it because they wanted to do it.”

As Mrs. White learned later, Mr. White flew many a mission over Germany, North Africa and Italy during World War II. His duty was to protect bomber aircraft from enemy fire. His unit, the 332nd Fighter Group (which came to be called “The Redtails”), never lost a bomber that flew under their escort.

Many years after his distinguished military career, Mr. White fought a battle of a different kind: cancer. When his illness became terminal, Mr. White and his family turned to Alive Hospice for comfort and support. He died in 2007.

Mr. James Ladd, who was an Alive Hospice patient, was a proud    veteran of World War II. He is pictured with medals he earned during    his military service.

Like Mr. White, Mr. James Ladd took great pride in serving his country during World War II.

Mr. Ladd was a gunner with the 738th Tank Battalion who helped liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945 and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

“I was just a boy when I went in, 19 years old,” he said.

Of all of the things he did in life, Mr. Ladd said without hesitation that his military career was one of the things he was proudest of. He died in 2008.

Alive Hospice salutes Mr. White, Mr. Ladd and all veterans who have served their country over the years.

The Millennial Generation (those born between 1980 and 2000), or Generation Y, is known for being highly motivated, greatly valuing community, and celebrating diversity. This much we know, but we want to know more!

If you are a Millennial, we hope you will participate in a survey about your views and preferences on a variety of topics. (You don’t have to live in Middle Tennessee to participate.) Or, if you have Millennial children and/or grandchildren, please click here to forward them an invitation to take the survey. Or just copy and paste the following link into an e-mail: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=yYjVl_2bFwy_2bWEtsFlyTeq0Q_3d_3d

Some other details:

• The deadline for completing the survey is Friday, November 13, 2009.
• Average time: 16 minutes.
• Millennials who complete the survey will have the chance to enter a drawing to win a $25 iTunes gift card.

Questions? Please contact Vanessa Melius at (615) 963-4810 or vmelius@alivehospice.org.

Mrs. Lynda Pond’s is one of the many faces of hospice care that we celebrate during National Hospice/Palliative Care Month, and throughout the year. Mrs. Pond received care at Alive Hospice at Skyline Madison Campus and from one of Alive Hospice’s home care teams. Though she died earlier this year, her smile lives on in the hearts of her loved ones and those Alive Hospice caregivers who were privileged to serve her family.

 November is National Hospice/Palliative Care Month, a time for celebrating the important role of hospice caregivers across the United States and those who have been served by hospice care, such as Mrs. Lynda Pond (pictured above).

Mrs. Pond shared her story with us earlier this year at Alive Hospice at Skyline Madison Campus, and judging from a visit from her nurse during that conversation, they shared a lot of laughs. Hospice care is partly about alleviating pain and other symptoms, but as Mrs. Pond noted, it’s about caring for the whole patient, too: body, mind, and spirit.

“There’s more to sickness and more to your health than just the medical part. There’s (the) mental and emotional,” Mrs. Pond said. She added about her Alive Hospice caregivers: “They have a lot of encouragement for the patients.”

Click here to read Mrs. Pond’s story.

• Ten Important Facts About Hospice Care (National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization)
• Are You Traveling Without a Map? A Layperson’s Guide to Advance Care Planning (National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization)

Dr. David Tribble

We at Alive Hospice had the privilege this week of being addressed by Don Schumacher, the President and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. After the update of all the things going on in Washington regarding proposed cuts, health-care reform, and hospice as the most prominent head in the budgetary Whack-A-Mole game, he asserted that those of us who do end-of-life care do so not only out of a sense of calling, a genuine desire to help people through a difficult time, but also to develop some control over our own deaths, some assurance that our passing can be comfortable and well-managed.

In the process of answering those who ask “How can you deal with death and dying all day?” I commonly answer that there is less doubt about the medical contribution I make in this work than in any other in my 30 years of medical practice. However, I also comment that I could not do this if I had not been able to accept, at a very visceral level, that I, too, will someday die. I suppose, then, that my helping to manage the rough parts of dying for others is, to some extent, rehearsal for my own eventual death. There is peace in this.

Please do not misunderstand: I am not depressed, let alone suicidal. However, I am not devastated by the eventuality of my death, either. I plan to remain a contributing human being for as long as I possibly can, but I do not expect that to be forever. This allows me the freedom to talk about how I will want that part of my life to be.

It must be difficult to do this work without having this sorted out for oneself first.

Dr. David Tribble is Alive Hospice’s chief medical officer.

Facing the loss of a loved one is difficult at any time of year, but the holiday season can make coping especially difficult. Alive Hospice will offer two free seminars in Nashville and one in Murfreesboro that can help participants get through the holidays more easily.

Alive Hospice’s “Grief During the Holidays” seminars will be held in Nashville on Nov. 19 and Dec. 3 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. and in Murfreesboro on Dec. 1 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Members of the public are invited to attend. Due to limited space, pre-registration is required. For the Nashville seminars, call 963-4721 to register and for the location of the seminars. For the Murfreesboro seminar, call 907-1677. Early registration is encouraged.