Hospice Workers Grant Elderly Patient His Fondest Wish
He talked about his late wife all the time, so they planned a special trip for him.
Carmen Amelio and his late wife Josephine have such a sweet story. They grew up in the same neighborhood on the Northside of Pittsburgh, but didn't fall in love and get married until they were in their 50's. When "Jo" died 17 years later, Amelio bought a large mausoleum where they could be buried together and went every day to visit her and tend to the landscaping.
Now 86, Amelio can't drive anymore, and hadn't been to visit Jo's grave for over a year. That's when his caregivers from Monarch Hospice in Lower Burrell, Pa. got a wonderful idea. They already knew how devoted he was to her memory, speaking of her every day, his home decorated with her pictures.
The Monarch "ladies," as Amelio calls them, decided to take him to the cemetery. "You can really feel the love that he had for this woman," Tia Phillips, one of Amelio's nurses told the Valley News Dispatch newspaper . "He's just such a great man."
Amelio had matching T-shirts made for the nurses and gave them all a Blessed Mother pendant in appreciation. At the cemetery they helped him sit on top of the mausoleum, and inspect the trees he had planted to shade and protect his beloved wife.
Cemetery workers said they had missed Mr. Amelio's daily visits.
On Monarch's Facebook page , one of the caregivers writes that at lunch after the cemetery visit, Amelio was strangely quiet. When she asked why, he said "I am taking this all in. This is the best day ever,"
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(Images: Monarch Hospice Facebook page )