Spring 2019

Janesville Family Finds Agrace’s Support Close to Home—Twice

When the Agrace Center for Hospice & Palliative Care opened just down the road from his Janesville home in 2014, Gordon Beyerlein didn’t know his family would need it so soon—or so often.

But in April 2017 and again in December 2018, his family gathered at Agrace to celebrate a loved one’s final days. First it was his wife, Cathie, and then Cathie’s mother, Betty Luedtke.

Cathie, a nurse, came to Agrace shortly after learning her rare cancer had advanced beyond treatment possibilities. Gordon says, “We had a good image of Agrace, so when the need arose, she was comfortable with it.”

Unsure what to expect, the family quickly learned what separates the Agrace hospice inpatient unit (IPU) from other medical settings where people may spend the end of life. Cathie’s sister, Carla Agnew, explains, “After a very tough month, it was like being enveloped by care again. It was a home.”

“Homelike” was the goal when the Rock County community rallied around Agrace’s plan to build a hospice inpatient unit in Janesville. With that financial support, Agrace created a unique place for all local families facing the end of life.

Gordon’s family felt welcomed at Agrace, even when 20 of them were there at once. “No matter how many people were there and how focused the staff were on Mom, there was always a place for everybody to be,” says his son Jeremy. “For some of us, it helped to go into the family lounge to watch TV or talk privately or do homework—to take a break from what was going on just down the hall.”

Family members of all ages received Agrace’s emotional support. Carla remembers the moment when Cathie’s young grandson showed her the grief journal given to him by Fran, an Agrace spiritual & grief counselor. “He pointed to a picture he’d drawn and said, ‘This is how I used to feel, and this is how I feel now.’ He couldn’t say it, but he pointed to the pictures. They touched him at a level he could not express. That was amazing.”

“We didn’t know what we needed—and didn’t know how to ask for what we needed,” Jeremy admits. “The staff at Agrace just made everything happen for us. They made our life a little easier. It didn’t occur to us that there was another option than just surviving.”

The memory of that support was rekindled when Cathie’s mother, Betty Luedtke, arrived at Agrace just 20 months later. Betty had received palliative care from Agrace for relief from chronic pain before she fell and re-injured an already-ailing shoulder. Needing help managing the acute pain, she came to Agrace for inpatient hospice care.

“Knowing what we went through with Cathie, we wouldn’t have thought of any other place,” says Carl, Betty’s husband of 68 years. “I thought they were able to manage her pain better. They’d change her position several times a day and gently put new gowns on her. It’s amazing how they are able to care for people who are in such discomfort and may be disoriented.”

After two Agrace experiences, Jeremy says, “This is how it should be when you have to lose a loved one. There’s no way to make it pleasant, but this is the most supported way I can imagine it happening. It was such a gift that Agrace was there to offer that to us.”