Page 24 - NVNA Call to Grace 2020

Compassion
LEADS THE WAY
W hen you meet Mary-Alice Loring, affectionately known to family and friends as Mal, the first thing you notice is her endearing smile, quiet
warmth and light-hearted sense of humor.
Mary-Alice experienced NVNA and Hospice several years ago when her husband Ken was under the hospice care of our nurses. While she had been an oncology nurse in a past life, the hospice nurses provided her with “tremendous backup and the support I needed.” Unbeknownst to her at the time, the nurses were also there to provide her and her adult children with “guidance through the unknown.”
The NVNA and Hospice nurses were able to provide clinical care for Ken while helping Mary-Alice shepherd herself and her family through the hospice process.
Mary-Alice and her late husband Kenneth Loring, founder of Boston Interiors.
This experience eventually directed her compassionate personality toward her community. She has been working as a volunteer for NVNA and Hospice for almost two years. She visits with hospice patients in their homes once a week. Her role includes companionship and support as well as reading, writing letters, and playing games. To Mary-Alice the role is “very rewarding, not hard, but rewarding.”
Mary-Alice likes to stay with the same patient throughout the duration of their hospice care. The time frame of her patients has ranged from three and four months to the longest being eight months. She admits that being a caregiver can be lonely at times. Whether providing caregivers with some time to themselves or an opportunity to talk about something else, like the day’s happenings, she understands their needs. Having experienced hospice firsthand, Mary-Alice knows that “hospice is for the family, as much as it is for the patient.”
NVNA and Hospice is grateful for all of our volunteers whose deep compassion is an invaluable complement to our non-profit mission. n
Mary-Alice Loring