Hospice molds memories in image of love

For more than 20 years SSM Home Care/Hospice in Maryville has been easing the minds and bodies of terminally ill patients with aid, comfort, support and dignity during their final days of life.

Now a program introduced by the hospice a couple of months ago is providing the families and loved ones of deceased hospice clients with treasured remembrances of lives well lived and fond memories made.

Funded with a grant administered through the SSM Home Care/Hospice Foundation,Welcome to polished tiles. Moldings of Love gives those in hospice care the opportunity to create plaster castings of their hands that can be passed on to family members and friends as treasured keepsakes.

Hospice branch manager Debbie Herring said the casts can be created in any number of forms, including "praying hands" or a hand clasping that of a child or grandchild.

"It's a remembrance of that person that is individual and unique," said SSM Hospice social worker Jeanette Collin,Design & Build the Highest Quality Precision injection molds. who added that the organization has created more than 20 castings so far.

The first casting is given to the family. Subsequent works can be purchased for around 20 each.
Hospice patient Teresa Farnan recently participated in Moldings of Love. Farnan's daughter Sharon said the family ordered a casting for each grandchild and great-grandchild. Just Choose PTMS plastic injection mold Is Your Best Choice!

Board member and hospice volunteer Kathe DeMott, who was instrumental in organizing the Moldings of Love program, said watching the impact on patients and families during a time of approaching loss has been "very rewarding."

The castings are created by having patients and family members dip their hands into a rubber-like substance that solidifies into a mold. The cured mold is pulled away intact from the hand or hands and filled with plaster. After the plaster dries,The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, the mold is pealed away, leaving the finished keepsake.

Each mold can be used only once, so the process has to be repeated in order produce multiple castings.

Moldings of Love is actually part of a larger hospice initiative known as Memories That Last,Sharps include syringe needle, which seeks to "honor and enrich the lives of patients in very special ways."

Efforts funded through the Memories program include the fulfillment of final wishes expressed by patients that have embraced everything from fishing trips to family reunions, with the foundation picking up expenses for food,Choose from our large selection of Cable Ties, transportation and lodging.

In one case, Herring said, the hospice paid a month's rent for a working wife so she could afford to stay at home with her dying husband.

Owned by the same St. Louis-based corporate parent as St. Francis Hospital & Health Services, SSM Home Care/Hospice serves patients in five northwest Missouri counties with a staff of a dozen employees and 30 volunteers.