Spotlight On: Legacy Creation
Faith Hospice is blessed with talented volunteers who generously donate their time and skills in any number of areas including our Legacy Creation Program. Legacy Creation helps our patients create lasting memories for their families through scrapbooking, a family history or family tree, memoirs or a legacy video. Two very special Legacy Creation volunteers are Deb Gosselin, of Ancestry Helper, who helps Faith Hospice patients research their family history and Bill Stewart who works with patients to create a legacy video.
Deb Gosselin, owner and founder of “Ancestry Helper,” has been generously donating her time to the Faith Hospice Legacy Creation Program for over three years. “It’s really a labor of love,” she said. “It’s best to volunteer for the things you are most passionate about. It just multiplies the good feelings.”
Gosselin has been involved with genealogy for more than thirty years—since she first discovered it in college. She begins her research with a standard questionnaire which Faith Hospice volunteers generally help the hospice patient and their family to fill out. From there, she accesses a number of databases including census, military and immigration records. All the material that Gosselin uncovers in her genealogical research goes into a special three ring binder she designed for Faith Hospice Legacy Creation participants.
Libraries are another step in tracking down information, and Gosselin has found they usually yield copies of obituaries of grandparents or other relatives. Gosselin has found that patients enjoy reading them. “The hospice patient feels they’re part of a cycle, part of the tree of life,” she said.
Two of the first hospice patients to become involved with Gosselin through the Legacy Creation Program shared the same maiden name but had never met each other. Gosselin’s research revealed that they were related approximately four generations ago. She shared the information with each of them, and they enjoyed meeting each other and swapping stories.
Gosselin learned another patient had had circus performers in their background. She contacted the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and they were able to locate posters with the performers’ names on them. Gosselin included photocopies of the posters in their Legacy Creation binders.
Since Gosselin generally doesn’t have months and months to do an extensive genealogy work-up for her hospice patients, she focuses on the things that are most important to them and of which they are the most proud. That might be their military experience, their college affiliation or a particular sport.
Gosselin recalled one patient whose room was extensively decorated with Michigan State “Spartan” memorabilia. She worked her usual research magic and discovered that the patient’s grandmother had been one of the first women to graduate from Michigan State. Further digging uncovered an article and picture from the Grand Rapids Press that Gosselin was able to obtain for the patient and their family.
According to Gosselin, doing a basic history and family tree are relatively easy, but it’s “finding the interesting little details that bring the history to life.”
Gosselin has found that the Legacy Creation Program—be it a family history, scrapbooking or making a video—gives the hospice patient and their family something to focus on and to share. There have even been times when she has continued work on a project with the family after the patient has died. “Family histories can continue through the grieving process.”
“I try to focus on the good years and create a picture of them,” said Bill Stewart about his participation as a videographer in Faith Hospice’s Legacy Creation Program. His goal is to create a “better memory” for the patient’s family with the focus on the life of the patient as opposed to their death.
Stewart begins with an informal interview that he captures on tape—much like a “fireside chat” as he put it. He asks the patient about their life and then he “lets it unwind the way the patient wants it to. I just let it flow.”
He sometimes researches music from the appropriate era and adds it to the tape along with still photographs from the patient’s photograph albums. Stewart had one patient who grew up in Chicago in the 1920s, and he was able to incorporate snaps of old-time Chicago in the video.
A retired electrical engineer, Stewart has been working with Legacy Creation for a year now, and he really enjoys it. “I like people. I like talking to people. I like to get their views on the world.” According to Stewart, “you don’t have to talk to people for very long to find them fascinating.”
Stewart recalls one 92 year-old patient who was an “artist” when it came to welding. “You could see his eyes light up when someone took an interest in his work.”
Stewart’s only wish would be for some newer computer software and either the donation or loan of more equipment. His real wish is that his videos will “leave a legacy for the patient.”
Faith Hospice and the Legacy Creation Program always welcome new volunteers. For more information on volunteering or on Legacy Creation, contact the volunteer office at 616-356-4859.
August 11th, 2009 | Posted in Community, General, Trillium Woods | Share this on Facebook or Twitter