Email: "Paula J. Baber Hospice Home becomes a reality"
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Life is lived looking forward.


Because of sentiments like that, Fort Dodge likely will see the Paula J. Baber Hospice Home operational by the fall of 2008.


Retired Fort Dodge orthodontist Bill Baber donated $750,000 in the capital campaign for the hospice house because, he said, Fort Dodge needs such a home and because he wanted to honor the memory of his late wife, Paula. She died in February 1999 from breast cancer in the den of the couple’s home.


To Baber, it’s important that the hospice house is called a home. A home, he says, is warm and comforting, a place of peace and well-being.


Groundbreaking for the $2.5 million hospice home was Oct. 26. It will be built on the Highland Park campus of Trinity Regional Medical Center at Ninth Avenue South and South 25th Street, offering eight patient rooms, each with a family sitting area and patio. The home will include a chapel, a family great room, family kitchen, dining room and administrative offices. A outdoor area will include a reflection garden and a children’s activity garden.


At the time of the groundbreaking, Baber said his wife was too humble to have wanted her name on the building, but he sees it as a way to honor her memory.


‘‘My heart is in this project,’’ he said during the groundbreaking ceremonies. ‘‘This is something that Fort Dodge really needs.’’


When complete, the Paula J. Baber Hospice Home will be the only home of its kind within a 60-mile radius of Fort Dodge. It is expected to keep terminally ill people in the area instead of having them enter hospice homes in Ames, Des Moines or further afield. The home will allow medical care in a home-like setting for those in the final stages of a terminal illness.


Nadine Schlienz, clinical coordinator for Hospice Trinity, told the crowd at the hospice home groundbreaking that not every family has the ability to keep a loved one at home till the end.


‘‘A lot of times these people are tired of being in and out of hospitals,’’ Schlienz said. ‘‘This facility will be peaceful and allow them to bring in family, fix meals and be comfortable.’’


Funds for the hospice home were raised in just one year, showing, perhaps, the importance of such a care facility in the city.


The campaign, called ‘‘Trinity House — House of Comfort, House of Care Capital Campaign,’’ reported contributions of $380,000 from hospital employees and $255,000 from doctors.


RaeAnne Frey Marner, manager of oncology services at Trinity and co-chairman of the hospital’s capital campaign, spoke during the naming donation program in June, calling the creation of the hospice home part of Trinity’s ongoing commitment to providing ‘‘compassion-filled end-of-life care,’’ adding that Baber’s generosity ‘‘will touch the lives of these patients.’’


Other groups worked to raise funds for the home, too — such as the ‘‘Cancer Doesn’t Care, But We Do’’ bike ride and festivities held at Twin Lakes for two summers in honor and memory of Norma Doyle. More than $60,000 was raised by the extended Doyle family in the two years of these festivities.


Paula Baber, who donated hundreds of volunteer hours at Trinity during her life, received in-home hospice care in her last days. It made a difference in her life and for her husband.


Choosing to donate the $750,000 was an easy decision, Baber said. That’s what it took to name the house, and he wanted the new hospice home to carry his late wife’s name.


Other naming opportunities were available, too. While some of those already are reserved, there remains the opportunity to name the reflection garden for a $100,000 donation; family kitchen, $50,000; commercial kitchen, $50,000; nurses’ station, $50,000; patient suites, five remain available at $30,000 each; and spa, $25,000.


Sheila Robinson, of Fort Dodge, and Paula Baber worked as escorts at Trinity for more than 20 years, taking patients to their rooms and helping them leave the hospital after their stay.


‘‘Paula was so sweet,’’ Robinson said. ‘‘She was a very kind girl. Patient. Kind. Soft-spoken. She always had a smile on her face and was so easy to get along with. You couldn’t meet anybody who would say she was a phoney.’’


Baber said his wife ‘‘wasn’t trying to make an image. She was just her, and that’s why people loved her.’’


Now the legacy of this sweet, patient and kind woman will live forever in Fort Dodge because of her husband’s generosity.


Life is lived looking forward.





Contact Sandy Mickelson at (515) 573-2141 or smickelson@messengernews.net.

 

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