Volunteer Spotlight: Kathleen McLeod

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Name: Kathleen McLeod

How long have you been a volunteer?
15 years.

What areas do you work in/what sort of tasks do you do as a volunteer?
Patient care in the Care Center, mailings, and events.

What made you decide to become a volunteer?
Forty-seven years ago my mother had cancer and she passed away. Back then they didn’t talk about it, they didn’t talk about cancer. It was a bad word. We knew when she was dying that she knew she was dying but we never talked about it. When we went to the hospital we just went during visiting hours and that was it.

I always felt really bad when she died that we didn’t get to share more with her. When I heard about Angela [Hospice] I thought, that sounds like a good place. So kind of in remembrance of my mother I started volunteering.

Why Angela Hospice?
I had heard from other people…good things about it. I had come for training and I liked it.

Kathleen has volunteered in Wing A since the
Care Center opened in 2010.
What is your favorite part about volunteering?
I really like the interaction with the patients and the families. I’ve met a lot of wonderful people, a lot of volunteers that I’ve become friends with, and the staff and everything are just wonderful. It’s kind of a combination of everything. I really like it here.

What is one of your favorite stories or memories from volunteering?
I have a lot of them. One of the patient’s families told me that hospice was like the first step to heaven. That really stuck with me. I thought, you know, that is a wonderful tribute to hospice. There have been a lot of patients that were just wonderful.

I used to come in on Fridays when “Dancing With The Stars” was on Thursdays and this one lady just loved “Dancing With The Stars” so much. We would talk, and compare who we liked the best and everything.

The people and their stories were just very warm. It gave me a lot of compassion towards people and I think it strengthened my faith even more.

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