Our 91-year-old mother was admitted to the hospital late on a Sunday night. After enjoying many years of good health, she was suddenly experiencing a number of coinciding health issues, including atrial fibrillation, two pulmonary embolisms, and evidence of 4 strokes. She received excellent care from all of the team members at Fairview Ridges, but toward the end of the week, on Friday night, she suffered a final stroke that rendered her unable to speak and eventually, by Saturday morning, unable to swallow.

The nursing staff helped us understand the situation and the reality that, given our Mother's solid "no" to wanting to be intubated or have a feeding tube, it was time to move to palliative care. As we agonized about whether to move her into home hospice, to a facility, or whether to continue her current care at the hospital, Tonya recognized our situation and our concerns and stepped in to make sure we were supported.

Our Mother was agitated and her breathing was far from controlled enough to make her comfortable. We felt that moving her would cause an even more rapid decline. Tonya showed us and our Mother such loving care during what turned out to be our Mother's final hours.

She worked hard to get the right combination of medications to finally put her at ease enough to breathe normally, took care to wash her and change her gown, and became our guide for what we were seeing and experiencing, including helping us to understand when the end was near. Because this whole shift to palliative care happened so quickly, we had no time to absorb or prepare for what was happening, so her guidance was invaluable.

In the end, our mother's death that Saturday afternoon was peaceful, and we were able to see her finally at rest and share our final goodbyes because there was a team of nurses, and Tonya in particular, who made sure that we had that opportunity.

Thank you so much for all you do. It meant more than you can ever know to our family.