a community-based non-profit agency
An Original Hospice Nurse Receives Care
with our Gratitude
In 1978, a group of nurses came
together in Loveland to voluntarily
care for a friend in the final months
of her life. This group of special
volunteers was the beginning of
the hospice movement in Larimer
County. In 1979, with support from
community members and leaders,
Pathways Hospice became a non-profit
organization.
In the first year of operation, the
all-volunteer staff at what was then
known as Hospice of Larimer County,
now Pathways Hospice, served 17
patients. Based on the unwavering
dedication and belief in the service
they were providing, Pathways
Hospice grew to meet the needs of
the community. We now have over
120 professional staff, more than 200
volunteers and serve approximately
1000 patients each year. Pathways
Hospice has a nationally recognized
grief support program for families of
hospice patients and al l members of
the community. Our locations include
our main office in Fort Collins, our
satellite office in Windsor, and the
Hospice Care Center in McKee Medical
Center.
This year we have the honor and
privilege to provide hospice service
to one of the original volunteers
who helped bring hospice to
Larimer County. June Sullivan
began volunteering with hospice
as a Registered Nurse in 1979 and
continued to provide loving and
compassionate care to community
members until 1984.
June still speaks with love and
conviction about the early days of
hospice care. “Most everything starts
with a dream or a thought. Elizabeth
Kubler-Ross came up with the first
thought of taking care of people in
their homes.” She put her hand to
her heart. “It rang a bell in here
somewhere with me. There’s always
so many needs in the world. That
was one that wasn’t being met.” Her
goal then was the same as the goal
Pathways Hospice has now. “We
wanted to make (our patients) as
comfortable as we could and as happy
as we could.”
June reminisced about how those
original volunteers worked with a bare
minimum. Poudre Valley Hospital
saw value in the service she and her
fellow volunteers were providing, and
supplied them with a basement office
and a phone. She didn’t realize at
the time that they would have also
given her a desk; they made good
with a makeshift desk her husband
created out of an old door! There
were many supportive people in the
community, including local physicians.
She particularly remembers the wives
of the physicians actively promoting
hospice work. She also recalls with
affection the other nurses who
worked with her, the original Music
Therapist, the community clergy and
the volunteers who provided loving
support and comfort to the patients.
June watched Pathways Hospice grow
over the years, and is aware of the
impact she and her fellow pioneers
June Sullivan
had on the way people now receive
end-of-life care. When asked about
the difference she made in so many
lives, she said, “If you know what you
did made a difference, what could be
a better epitaph?”
Now June is on the receiving end
of hospice care and expressed how
that feels. “It warms the cockles of
your heart, wherever they are.” She
laughed with warm humor. June
became quiet for a moment and said,
“It’s a complete circle. Wonderful…
wonderful… knowing that something
that was so important to me then
could be so important at the end of
my life.”
With great respect and gratitude
Pathways Hospice thanks June
Sullivan for her commitment to loving
service to others, her willingness to
advocate for those who sought to
spend their final days at home with
loved ones, and her belief in the
future of hospice.
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