Hospice Patient’s Last Wish Comes True

When Luis set off on a small boat to escape his native Cuba for the United States at the age of 13 little did he know that he would no longer have contact with his mother. Throughout his life he always wondered about her and dreamed of seeing her again, but had no way of communicating with her.

Forty-three years later, that desire to see his mother again became even stronger when Luis was diagnosed with terminal cancer. With the support of Luis’s family, Joe Mayer, a Sharp HospiceCare chaplain, helped make Luis’s dying wish come true. Though the task required numerous hurdles to get through the proper government channels, Luis’s mother was at long last granted a visa to visit her son.

 Patient of HospiceCare

“You can imagine the scene when mother and son reunited after so many years,” said Joe. “She stayed the time her visa permitted her to.”

Though cancer eventually took Luis’s life, Joe said that Luis died peacefully having reunited with his mother and reconciled the decision he made in his youth to leave his family.

For his efforts and acts of kindness to help a patient find comfort and peace in his last days, Joe was acknowledged with a service award from Sharp HealthCare.

For More Information
To learn more about Sharp HospiceCare, call 619-667-1900. To find a Sharp-affiliated physician, search for San Diego doctors or call 1-800-82-SHARP (1-800-827-4277), Monday through Friday, 8 am to 6 pm. To find general information about hospice care, read the Home Care and Hospice News archive.