Lights of Love: Connecticut Hospice

Just like all the rest of you out there, Michelle and I find ourselves very busy at times when something has to be put aside. Michelle is in full swing at school with the little kiddies, and I am, well, working, preparing for the holidays! Time kept slipping by and we found ourselves behind with our blogging! Once Michelle has a moment to breath, she will fill you in on the volunteer adventures in October when I was down and out with covid (Oh! The headache that accompanied this viral infection was AWFUL!) While it is out of sequence, I would like to share our November experience at Connecticut Hospice located on the shoreline of Branford.

For those of you who are not familiar, Connecticut Hospice was the first in-patient hospice facility in the United States. With years of experience in the field of end-of-life services, they are truly the experts! Serving not only the patients at this tender time in the life cycle, they provide the much-needed care, service, and education to the families as well. Helping them understand and accept the process as their loved-ones transition and then follow up with as the family works through grief. As an oncology nurse, I am well aware of the benefit that hospice provides patients and families, whether they enter hospice as in-patient or enjoy the service in their own home.

Michelle and I, along with a new Give Back Girl, Sue, volunteered to help light up the property in preparation for their Lights of Love event this year. This fundraising event included an entire hallway full of interesting and valuable raffle items! The generosity of the donors was quite impressive. On the day of the lighting, Santa visited under the gazebo. This is where the Give Back Girls assignment took place. There was a very large tree to be decorated and we were ready for the task!

Before getting to the lights, I have to tell you a story. Our newest GBG addition, Sue, is full of energy and ready to go. Sue showed up all excited and exclaimed, "I have a plan!", and then proceeded to describe how we were going to get the lights on effortlessly. She said that all we had to do, once we followed her plan was to "hook the loop on the post". We all looked at Sue confused and just nodded our heads in agreement. She was very convincing and confident in her plan. As we were walking to the gazebo I kept thinking, "What post on the tree could she possibly be talking about". It was when we approached the gazebo I saw it! The post at the top of the gazebo. I said, "Sue! we are decorating the tree, not the gazebo roof!" We looked at each other and burst into laughter! I still wonder who she had climbing to the top to put the "loop on the post!"

Michelle arrived shortly after and we all got to work. Michelle trimmed the tree to make it look nice and tidy. I found the outlet to begin our string of lights and got the lighting party started! Michelle and I took turns climbing the ladder and Sue kept working at untangling the lights.

As you can see, untangling the lights was no light task! Meet our Sue! She had those lights straightened out in no time.

We popped on some Christmas music on our phones and made a nice day of decorating the tree to bring cheer to the residents.

We were joined by another volunteer that was a great help too. Seemed like we had everything under control.....

Well, almost all of us! What would a day out volunteering be without a bit of fun and laughter! We certainly had some comic relief to make the work light. Once I was untangled and lights were complete, we placed pretty ornaments on the tree to finish it off. The tree was beautiful!

We understand that the Lights of Love event was a successful fundraiser for Connecticut Hospice. Give Back Girls were thrilled to have been a part of this wonderful event for such and important service in our community. For more information on volunteering at Connecticut Hospice, please click below for volunteer information.

Volunteer Information