One of our volunteers here at Nurses With Global Impact shared with me an extraordinary experience she and her mother and three sisters are still living through, following the sudden loss of their husband and father, Victor Earl Walker.
Victor was in the emergency room only three weeks before, spent time in the hospital, then courageously declined “extraordinary” and “heroic measures after learning more about his kidney failure.
With the support of his wife, Anna Marie, and his care team at Kaiser Permanente in Ontario, California, he was moved from the hospital to a remarkable community in Claremont, California – Pilgrim Place.
Anna Marie joined him the next morning. As very active community servants for many decades – caring for over 41 foster children, teaching Sunday School, running the nursery and kindergarten at their church, and ultimately shopping for their churches’ food pantry serving 400 homeless – they were welcomed warmly.
Pilgrim Place for over 100 years has been providing a community for ministers and their spouses, missionaries, and non-profit workers, and today the beautiful campus covering many town center blocks includes a Health Services Center where Victor and Anna Marie were located.
Within a few days, Victor was diagnosed as ready for hospice, and within a few days after going on hospice, he died peacefully in his sleep, in the same room with his wife of over 66 years, who was napping after their four daughters shared a picnic lunch.
The compassionate care of the nurses and staff – their professionalism, responsiveness and sensitivity helped the Walker family move through the shock and the fog of grief, and today are caring for Anna Marie as she makes her new home with so many other interesting and kind people who also have devoted their lives to helping others.
There is nothing like a nurse at times like these, and the teams of nurses, each with their own specialties, working in concert, make an enormous difference – a true impact – for the loved ones who pass on, as well as their families.
Pilgrim Place is defined in 320 different ways by the 320 residents who have created a home here. Since 1915 it has been a home to thousands of persons who have served as leaders of religious or charitable non-profit organizations throughout the world, including commissioned or ordained missionaries, ministers, theological seminary faculty, college professors of religion, denominational executives, YMCA/YWCA staff, community organizers, and peace and justice advocates. Serving others is what Pilgrim residents have been called to do. It is what they did in their careers and it’s what they continue to do in “retirement.” This is why such a strong sense of community pervades the entire campus.
Our volunteer, a daughter of Victor and Anna Marie, sent me photos of this nurses’ hat which is displayed in a cabinet in the entryway of the Health Services Center.
Her sister volunteers too, and we hear Anna Marie may also join us when she is ready!
Join me in sharing gratitude, this Thanksgiving season for the wonderful nurses who are caring for the Pilgrims, many of whom have been missionaries in many of the countries our organization also supports!
Gratefully yours,
– Deb
