Everyone at the restaurant where he worked loved "Joe" & appreciated his hard work & charm. After work each day he returned to his tiny duplex apartment alone. He felt agonizingly alone when he received the diagnosis that his cancer was terminal.
Who steps into help when a dying patient with no family is suffering through his last days? Joe needed an angel on earth; one of those rare caregivers who goes above & beyond her job description to deliver Radical Loving Care™.
Nashville's Alive Hospice, one of America's finest, not only reached out to Joe but they sent him a special angel. Her name is Shannon Ripani & she, along with Alive, are the latest winners of a 2020 Servant's Heart Award from Erie Chapman Foundation.
When Shannon visited Joe with the nurse the day after admission he was barely responsive. There was no family to help. But there was Shannon. She stopped everything to care for her new patient.
Most caregivers might have stopped there, written up the case & moved on. After futile efforts to reach distant family, she called Joe's good-hearted employer who supported Joe's transfer to a skilled nursing facility. It is tough to find a bed for a poor patient. Shannon got Joe in the next day!
Once again, like the Good Samaritan, she treated this stranger like family. She worked with the employer to secure Joe's home, kept in close touch & made it possible for her patient to die in a warm bed surrounded by caregivers.
End of story. Nope.
There was no one to pay for a funeral so Angel Shannon stepped forward once again. She contacted the employer who paid cremation costs. The restaurant not only held a gathering to remember Joe but announced the naming of their porch in his honor. But the real honoree was an invited angel named Shannon Ripani.
Alive Hospice is known for its culture of kindness. When we asked CEO Kimberly Goessele for nominations she had several. But when I asked her who she would pick she said, "Shannon. Hands down."
We agree.
Erie Chapman
Postscript: Shannon is about to be another kind of caregiver. On Friday she took maternity leave to prepare for the birth of what is sure to be a very lucky baby.
