Sharing Wishes Fund Grants Modest Yet Meaningful Wish for Hospice Patient

Sharon Mills in her new Christmas dress with Tom Culberson, Hospice RN, Heather Danport, Home Health Aide, and Laurie Dobrinich, Hospice Social Worker

In her 65 years, Sharon Mills of Hillsboro has never had a Christmas dress.

A patient in Memorial’s Home Hospice program, Sharon confided to social worker Laurie Dobrinich and Hospice nurse Tom Culberson, RN, that all she wanted this holiday season was to look and feel beautiful.

Thanks to the Memorial Medical Center Foundation’s Sharing Wishes fund, she did. Established in the spring of 2012, the fund helps provide the money necessary to make the small yet very special wishes of hospice patients, like Sharon, become a reality.

After filling out an application form, the wish was approved, and Dobrinich went shopping along with Memorial Home Services marketing manager Alexis Walch. The two picked out a skirt, deep red top and some jewelry, including a ring. Sharon was always complimentary of Dobrinich’s rings, so she wanted Sharon to have her own.

A few days before Christmas, Hospice home health aide Heather Davenport went to Sharon’s home early to help her shower and put on makeup. Then, Dobrinich and Culberson arrived to present Sharon with her new outfit and help get her dolled up.

She loved it.

“Throughout the visit, Sharon kept asking, ‘Do I look pretty? … This is the first Christmas dress I’ve ever had,’ ” Dobrinich said.

For more information on the Sharing Wishes Fund, visit the Foundation’s website, MemorialMedicalFoundation.com.