Hospice house dream finally coming true
The week of Oct. 10 was very exciting and historic for Rowan Regional Hospice. Site grading on Statesville Boulevard, the designated location for the Hospice House, has begun. Construction will continue aggressively. We anticipate smooth completion of the hospice house and preparing the facility for operation.
A broad network of people including the Rowan Regional Medical Center Governing Board of Directors and the RRMC Foundation Board of Directors, Hospice House Steering Committee, hospital and hospice staff, administrators, consultants, engineers and design professionals, equipment vendors and numerous volunteers have been steadfast as they guided this project forward over the past two years.
A major procedural step was receipt of a certificate of need to build a hospice house in Rowan County from the N.C. Division of Health Service Regulations.
Numerous sites were considered before the Statesville Boulevard site was presented to, and approved by, the Hospice House Steering Committee and the Rowan Regional Medical Center Board of Directors, following many months of diligently reviewing every aspect of the project.
Additional project approval was also given by the Salisbury City Technical Review Committee, the Salisbury Planning Board and the City Council. Final approval of the architectural and building plans was received from the N.C. DHSR, the Rowan County Inspection Department and the N.C. Department of Insurance.
For over 30 years Rowan Regional Hospice has provided patient services in homes, nursing homes and in the hospital, but no hospice house was available locally.
In the new Rowan Regional Hospice House, a skilled team will provide comforting, compassionate care and improve quality of life, when it is needed most, in a homelike setting, meeting the unique needs of patients and their families facing life-limiting illnesses.
It “takes a village” to accomplish this project. We are grateful and thankful to so many people that Rowan County will finally have the Hospice “HOME” this community needs so much.
— Libby Gish
Salisbury
Gish is co-chair of the steering committe for Rowan Regional Hospice House.
Touching gesture
I am writing this letter to commend Salisbury High School’s athletic department, namely the football program (and coaching staff) for their recent gesture of compassion toward my 11-year-old son, Myles Aaron Sewell.
My son has been a Salisbury High fan since the age of 7. I took him to all of the games that I could up until this point. We are stalwart supporters of the team and his cousin, my nephew, Dejoun Jones (No. 11).
I was recently diagnosed with an advanced stage of a rare form of cancer called thymoma, in which I’m being treated with chemotherapy. My nephew recently came to visit me in the hospital, and I asked him to have a talk with Myles about not giving up on his youth football league team. My nephew obliged.
Not only did he oblige, he took it one step further and asked his coach to let Myles be the honorary ball boy for the Oct. 9 game, while I was in the hospital!
With that gesture alone, you made him the happiest boy in the world! When he heard the news that he was going to be the honorary ball boy, he did not get any sleep the night before because he was grinning ear to ear. And as he told me the story of the night’s events, it gave me tears of joy!
Thank you for touching his life in such a big way. God bless Salisbury High.
Although you guys and girls are state champions, you will always be world champions in my heart.
— Aaron T. Sewell
Salisbury