Caldwell Hospice focuses on helping people enjoy life with the time they have left

By Nikki Roberti

Preparing for Ministry

Roger Newton will never forget standing outside the Dallas Texas Children’s Hospital carrying his five-year-old son in his arms. It was 1985, and his family was packed and ready to go into the mission field, but instead of heading out, they found themselves stopped with fear. Their son was too weak to walk.

The diagnosis? Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Cancer. 

Newton found himself filled with questions. “Why was this happening? Hadn't we given up our pastorate, left family and friends to serve God?” he said. “We had to do as Abraham of old and pull back our hands. We prayed, ‘God, we gave our children to you at birth and this child is yours.’”

Fortunately, his son did recover and is a thriving adult today. But what ensued helped prepare Newton as he continued to work a life full of diverse ministry as a chaplain in the Air Force to a missionary in the field and even now as a chaplain for Caldwell Hospice in the High Country.

“This experience has truly prepared me to understand people with life limiting illnesses and those who give care to them,” he said.

Companions for the Journey

Newton has worked in a hospice chaplain capacity since 1995 with a brief break in the middle. He originally left the Appalachian District Health Department Hospice when plans were being made to sell it to a for profit Hospice. 

“I have strong feelings about Hospice not making a profit for investors but being a ministry,” Newton said. “In Caldwell Hospice's mission statement, it clearly states: ‘Hospice acknowledges our Christian basis, and as such, our overall purpose is to demonstrate the unqualified love of Jesus Christ in all that we do.’”

When he joined Caldwell Hospice’s team three and a half years ago, he said he was delighted because their mission aligned with his beliefs. 

“Companions for the Journey” is more than just a tagline beneath the Caldwell Hospice logo. For more than 37 years, being a companion for patients and families facing the end of life is exactly what they strive to be.

“Caldwell Hospice serves the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of terminally ill people and those they love,”  Caldwell Hospice chaplain/faith liaison Lance Perry, DMin said. “We recognize dying as a natural part of living, and we help patients live as pain-free and comfortably as possible.”

Each Caldwell Hospice patient has a complete care team that works together with them to develop a customized care plan that meets their specific needs and goals. 

Dorothy Norris’ Journey

Dorothy Norris, a Caldwell Hospice patient being served in a local long-term care facility, continues to find joy in her journey. Recollections from over 96 years bring a quiet smile to her face.  Dorothy was born on the Cone Estate, where her father was employed at the time. She learned compassion and hospitality from her mother’s example. 

“My mama used to feed people as they traveled through the Coffey Gap community where we lived near Grandfather Mountain,” she said. “They would eat and sit on our porch to rest before continuing on their journey.”

Dorothy mirrored that model of caring as she worked for years in Appalachian State University’s dietary. “I would get up early and make biscuits to go with my homemade raspberry jelly to take to some of the students. All these years later, there are still some of them that come to visit me.”

Dorothy enjoys the visits with her care team which, in addition to Chaplain Lance Perry, include a physician, registered nurse, medical social worker, certified nursing assistant, and volunteer. 

“Law’… we just have a real good time talking and visiting,” Dorothy said. She always enjoyed singing in the church choir, so when Perry asked if she wanted to sing some old hymns together, she was delighted. Accompanying with his guitar, the two sang old favorites like “Amazing Grace” and “Victory in Jesus.”

“Sometimes people stop in the hallway to listen to us sing,” Dorothy said.

A Focus on Living

Caldwell Hospice was founded in 1982 by neighbors taking care of neighbors. Since 2014, Caldwell Hospice Serving the High Country has had the privilege of providing palliative and hospice care to more than 900 patients and families in Ashe, Avery, and Watauga Counties. Most of those patients receive care wherever they call home—a private residence or long-term care facility. Caldwell Hospice’s High Country team members—including physician, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, certified nursing assistants, medical social workers, chaplains, clinical and administrative support, volunteer coordinator and volunteers—all live and work in the High Country.

“Caldwell Hospice focuses on the quality of life for whatever quantity of life remains,” Perry said. “It surprises many to learn that our real focus is on living.” 

Unfortunately many patients are referred to hospice services late in the disease process. Some are referred so late they cannot fully realize the full positive impact hospice is known to have on physical and emotional comfort and overall quality of life. 

“Hospice allows people to control the last chapter of their life and make and do those things they feel are important,” Newton said. “People should not fear Hospice but  embrace the help Hospice gives after a life limiting diagnosis is given. Hospice aids in the physical relief of symptoms but also with physico/social symptoms. And Hospice has its basis in the spiritual care and often that is now the only thing that matters.”

God of Comfort

Looking back at those uncertain years when his young son was sick, Newton said that was the beginning of his calling to serve people facing extreme medical hardship and terminal circumstances. He walked with the other families through the ups and downs of cancer as his family went through it too. They saw many miracles, but also great and tragic loss. Through it all, Newton said he found comfort in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5. 

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.”

Now, all these years later, he strives to share the same comfort and peace he found in Christ to those he serves at Caldwell Hospice.

“Being a minister at Hospice is not a job. It is a calling,” Newton said. “I honestly would minister to those with life threatening illnesses for free.”

Caldwell Hospice is the only community-owned hospice care provider in Watauga and Ashe Counties, and one of two in Avery. To discuss resources available to you and your family, call us at 828.754.0101 or 1.844.MY.JOURNEY, or visit www.caldwellhospice.org.

This article was originally written for the Winter 2019 Edition of The Journey magazine.