What We're Thankful For

The staff, volunteers, and leadership team of Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care have so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. We asked a few members of our team to share what they’re thankful for this year.

I'm most thankful for all the gifts God has given me: my health, loving family, precious friends, the gift of salvation and opportunity to serve others in the hospice field.

Laura Haigler
Volunteer Manager

I am most thankful for my family; the coworkers who have become family during my (almost) 7-year career at Crossroads and my wonderful husband for being such an amazing husband to me and the best Daddy to our 2-year-old daughter Brenley!

Jennifer Williams
Assistant Executive Director

For my work life, I am thankful for having such a great team of bosses! From my Executive Director Todd Garber and my Assistant Executive Director Jennifer Williams, to my Clinical Director Andrea Becker and Accountant Maria Miranda, they are very kind people. They always make me feel included and have accepted me with open arms since the day I started. They have also been there for me during a traumatic family loss I experienced this summer.

In my personal life, I am thankful for having such a great support system from my family and friends. Whenever the world seems to be closing in on me, I can always turn to them for unconditional love to pick my spirits up.

Anna Leftridge
Receptionist

I’m, first and foremost, thankful for my faith. I am also eternally thankful for my health, my husband, my kids, my very precious grandkids and family (including my furry son-Gideon) and those in my life that are true friends. I’m also grateful to work going on 24+ years with the best boss and, because of the vision, the best hospice on the on the planet. 

DeAnna Looper RN, CHPN, CHPCA, LNC
Chief Compliance Officer

As the holiday season approaches, I am very thankful for many things, but without question, the thing that I am most thankful for is the love and support of my family, friends and Crossroads Hospice “family.”  This past year has been a tough year for me personally.  I lost both of my parents within two months of each other, and I am thankful for the time I had with them, and although I miss them terribly, I take great comfort in the fact that they are at peace. 

I am also thankful to be able to come into the office every day, knowing that I will be met with the kindest, most caring and genuine people makes “work” easy.

Joyce D'Angelo
Site Educator

What a great time of year; if one is not grieving.

This year, with all the access we have via news and social media, I’m feeling very grateful for how fully blessed I am to live in a land with so many resources, and so many choices. This includes being able to jump in the car, or on a plane, and go visit family or friends. I’m also feeling grateful for the privilege of being able to do such meaningful work. I’m inspired by those grieving who show up to work on their grief through talking, and through creative expression as you see in the picture of our memory jar. This was done by a man in his 60s whose wife died just two weeks after getting a diagnosis. He is a participant from the community who attends our groups. The bracelet is made by a widow who attended the “Finding Creative Ways to Express Your Grief.” Each bead represents a memory of her husband.

I am want to express my gratitude toward the Crossroads Hospice Charitable Foundation who co-sponsored a community group: Grief Support Network.  I serve as president on their board and for this year’s conference, with support from the foundation. we were able to bring in Dr. Katherine Shear, Director of the Center for Complicated Grief at Columbia University in NY to provide Complicated Grief Treatment Training – an evidence-based intervention. There are 12,000 people in the United States whose grief does not take the normal trajectory toward healing and experience complicated grief. There are very few licensed clinicians trained in this intervention; and there were none in our region.

Grief Support Network and Crossroads Hospice Charitable Foundation changed that by offering this conference for a third of the cost it would be if traveling to NY.

Vickie Mears, LCSW
Social Worker

I am personally thankful for my family and professionally thankful to work in support of our mission at Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care. 

Susan Hrvatin
HR Coordinator 

This year at Thanksgiving, same as every year, I'm thankful for my family, who give unconditional love and support me in all that I do.  I'm also thankful for my Crossroads family, who show me the meaning of true compassion and dedication every day.  It’s a great feeling to have so many amazing people in my life!
Terri Doughty
Senior VP Operations

I am thankful for my wife and children.  I am thankful for the journey of life and the blessings of walking it with so many others over the last decades.  I am thankful for the opportunity of sharing experience with others facing inevitabilities of their lives so that they can define, “How to live!” rather than, “How to die.”  Every day I learn, love, live, grow, grieve and rejoice with individuals seeking to care for others. It is truly a human narrative – one that transcends medicine and fear.  Only when we are thankful for that which is sacred to us can we overcome that which scares us.  Only then can we move beyond race, religion, orientation, economics and gender.  Only then will we be liberated from a desire to beat that which can’t be beaten – Mother Nature.  Only then are we able to move forward throughout any chapter of our lives as a whole person.   Only then will we be whole and able to share such transcendence with other.  This is why I am thankful.

Timothy G. Ihrig, M.D.,M.A.
Chief Medical Officer

Here at Crossroads, we are incredibly grateful for our dedicated and compassionate staff and volunteers – especially those who will be working over the Thanksgiving holiday to admit patients, answer questions, and provide care. We thank them and all our staff for all they do to care more!

If you need the extra support of hospice care this weekend, please call us at 1-888-564-3405.

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