It’s been 15 years since Michele Alderson and a group of like-minded people unveiled plans to build a hospice house in Franklin.
Now, construction to transform a house on Maple Street into the Hospice House of Western North Carolina is just over 60 percent complete.
Alderson, president of the Hospice House of WNC Foundation, said the project has entered the home stretch toward realizing the dream that began in 2005.
“I think I would have been [surprised] in the beginning if someone had told me it’s going to take 15 years before you have this in place, we might have taken a hike,” Alderson said. “But one of the most wonderful things happened.”
A couple on their way home to Raleigh dropped by an early fundraising event. The woman said she had headed up a campaign to open a hospice house in Raleigh, and it took 18 years to make it happen.
“She said, ‘Don’t be surprised, and don’t give up,’” Alderson said.
Alderson and the foundation didn’t give up, and despite some delays, the SECU Hospice House of Western North Carolina is now projected to open in the spring of 2021.
The foundation has raised more than $4.3 million, including a $1 million grant from the State Employees Credit Union, toward the goal of $4.5 million. The new facility will be a six-bed hospice inpatient facility that will serve Macon, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Jackson and Swain counties, as well as northeast Georgia.
The project is still $150,000 short of its $4.5 million goal as the COVID pandemic has forced the cancellation of in-person fundraising events.
About 40 percent of the money raised so far has come from grants. Private donations, big and small, make up the rest. Many obituaries that run in The Franklin Press ask that memorial donations be made to the Hospice House.
“That’s been really nice, and [obituary donations] are not necessarily small,” Alderson said. “One lady gave us house, which we sold. One lady, we were in her will, which we didn’t know. It’s not just $50 and $25 donations.”
First-hand experience
Alderson has worked as a hospice volunteer since 2000, and she knows first-hand what a blessing hospice care can be for both patients and their families.
“It was my personal experience, with my brother, back in 1995,” she said. “He was 52 and he came down with cancer. The last six weeks of his life he was on the oncology floor in a hospital in Fort Lauderdale,” she said. “My sisters and I stayed there with him as much as we could. That was my first experience with hospice.”
Her brother spent the last couple of weeks of his life in an inpatient hospice facility.
“I didn’t even know anything about hospice,” Alderson said.
“Mother just passed away a year ago, and it was in a hospice facility, and it was wonderful,” she said. “We didn’t have to worry about a thing. She was cared for beautifully.”
The facility will be operated by nonprofit hospice provider Four Seasons, which reported that its average daily patient census in the six-county far-WNC region has increased by 50 percent since 2018.
Alderson said the Hospice House will provide much more than end-of-life care.
“About 80 percent of hospice patients die at home, but there are people whose disease process is such that they need in-patient care, or they have no family, or they can’t get their pain under control,” she said.
Patients can also come to Hospice House for five days just to give their families and caregivers a rest.
“A lot of families just can’t do it anymore,” Alderson said. “They’re not strong enough, or they may be elderly and can’t take care of the patient properly. Toward the end there’s a lot of care needed.”
To donate to Hospice House or to get more information, go to hhfwnc.org or call 828-524-6375. The facility is located at 272 Maple Street in Franklin.