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The pride of this accomplishment was honored this past February when the Center welcomed its first patient – a story that will leave an indelible impression on the history of the Center.
On that February day when the hospice first opened, the 12-suite, 36,000-square foot, stand-alone, nonprofit facility was polished, decorated and ready to accept patients. Though its healing gardens and walking paths had yet to bloom, they were just a season away from their full splendor. The children’s rooms filled with books, video games and crayons lay quietly waiting to welcome its youngest visitors. Its 100-plus employees were ready and eager to accept what they anticipate will be 1,200 patients every year.
On Feb. 17, 2015, Thomas Jeffress came through the front door. He was a jazz musician who had performed with the likes of Ray Charles and Joe Tex. He also played for President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Princess Grace of Monaco while serving as a musician on the Aircraft Carrier SS Forrestal in the Navy during the Korean War.
Thomas held a Master’s in Psychology and enjoyed a long career helping others as a counselor fort he Mental Health Association of Connecticut. He married is soul mate, Irene, and raised his family in Bethel.
In the fall, Jeffress and his wife were on vacation in Virginia when he suffered a severe stroke. Jeffress spent three months in hospitals in Virginia and Washington, D.C and was told by doctors there that he wouldn’t survive infections or surgeries or ever make it back to his home in Bethel. Eventually, Thomas did make it back to Connecticut with one ardent hope – to spend his final days at a new Center his wife had heard was about to open. “He waited at the VA Hospital in New Haven until your doors opened for us,” Irene Jeffress said. "The Center is a very special place. Everyone was so positive and loving. I wanted this for my husband. The morning he died, even the nurses who weren’t on duty came in to be with us. They honored Tom for his service to our country, many of them came to his funeral, they thought of everything.”
When Jeffress died at the Center on February 21 at the age of 78, it marked the end of a remarkable life and an incredible new beginning for Regional Hospice and Home Care’s Center for Comfort Care & Healing.
He was the first that Connecticut’s first and only all-private suite facility will never forget.
Learn more about Regional Hospice and Home Care’s in-home services and the new Center at regionalhospicect.org. Arrange for a visit by calling 203-702-7400.
Regional Hospice is a non-profit, state-licensed and Medicare-certified home health care and hospice agency.
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