Together Again
Elsie Kimmel’s Senior Wish

CNS hospice patient, Elsie Kimmel, recently had a very special family dinner, thanks to the CNS Senior Wish Program. You might be surprised to learn that about half of the Senior Wishes we host are simple family dinners in a patient's home or care center. Most hospice patients don’t have the energy to go on an airplane ride or attend a Jazz game and really just want to spend time in their home, surrounded by family, which was the case with Elsie. 

Elsie’s first round of chemotherapy “practically took her under,” her daughter, Judy Welks said. Elsie needed five more rounds. It wasn’t worth the pain and they decided to discontinue the treatments and go on hospice with CNS. When CNS approached her with the chance to do something special in her last days as part of the Senior Wish program, she didn’t want anything too outlandish.

Elsie only wanted to have “one nice meal together” with her family, Welks said. And Elsie knew just the place – the Maddox steakhouse in her hometown of Brigham City.

Thanks to Senior Wish donors, Elsie hosted her three children and five grandchildren at her home like she had so many times in the past, only on this day in April, she didn’t have to do the cooking.

“I enjoyed every bit of it,” Elsie said. “I thank CNS for doing that for us. It was wonderful to have all the family together.”

Elsie’s daughter, Gail Gary, who lives in Melbourne, Australia, rushed back to Brigham City in March for the first chemotherapy appointment and ended up being in town for the Maddox dinner. It was special for Elsie to revisit cherished memories together with all of her children and they appreciated the opportunity to express gratitude for the sacrifices their parents made to give them “a good life,” Welks said.

Elsie and her family wanted to thank CNS for the care she has received while in hospice and also for the special time they were able to spend together.

“Everything that we got was wonderful. Good food. Good times with our whole family. We talked about the good times. We all have good times and bad times but that was a good time with all of the grandkids being here,” Elsie said.