Page 87 - South Mississippi Living - November, 2015

TOP: CANON HOSPICE’S welcoming facilities help any and all patients feel at home. BOTTOM: KATHERINE RUSH gets a visit from a friend while Terri Harris, Assistant Director of Operations and Personnel Management, assists. Helping patients and families during this critical time of life is a
Canon Hospice priority.
community college, thanks to grants made available to her, and transferred to Mississippi State University, where she studied meteorology. Though she had to leave school, her knowledge enabled her to become a storm-chaser in Tulsa in the 1980s.
“My great-aunt Marguerite, a teacher at Central High in Jackson, told us to open our eyes and look around. The world is a wondrous place,” Rush said. “No dream is too small or too big. You’re never too old to learn.”
She urges people of all ages to seize the opportunity for higher education. She also developed an interest in cooking and cake decorating, and speaks with great fondness of her
two Chihuahuas, Zachary and Cugat, named after the acclaimed actor, singer and bandleader. She loves to tell the story of spontaneously purchasing Zachary at a Jackson pet store. The
dog became quite ill within a week. When she returned to the store, it became obvious he was grieving for his brother, who was still awaiting a home. Rush said there was no option
but to adopt them both.
What’s immediately striking about
Rush are the warmth and vitality she exudes as she looks back on her life and ahead to the future. She’s also a HAM Radio operator, quick to point out her license is good through 2018, and she intends to renew it.
Since coming to Canon, the relationship with her mother and two brothers has strengthened, and she looks forward to visits from fellow church members and friends. But
the small pleasures count too. With
her doctor’s permission, Rush was delighted to have a hamburger for supper, and snack on peanut butter, two favorites excluded from her normal liquid diet. “They have bent over backwards for me,” she stated. “If it’s medically possible, they will do it. It made me so happy.”
Hospice care at Canon has centered on managing her pain and discomfort, but she ruminates little about her illness, and her demeanor is far from grim. In keeping with their mission
to nurture and support, Canon
Hospice Administrator Joshua Bruce is arranging a visit by members of the Mississippi Mass Choir to honor her, one of the choir’s founding members.
“Our desire is to celebrate the wonderful parts of our patients’ lives, and provide the comfort that comes from being understood and cared about.”
1520 Broad Avenue, Gulfport
228.575.6251 www.canonhospice.com
FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net
November 2015 • SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living 87