Don and Carolyn Sparks were high school sweethearts, lifelong educators and avid fans of their alma mater, Murray State University. Don would often remind his wife she had once been Miss Murray State.

When it became clear Carolyn was facing terminal pancreatic cancer, she didn’t want her family to be burdened with her end-of-life care at home. She chose the Ray & Kay Eckstein Hospice Care Center at Mercy Health - Lourdes Hospital because she was familiar with the facility and was impressed with the amenities it offered.

Beloved members of their family and community, Carolyn and Don needed a space where she would be allowed to have visitors.

“The Hospice Care Center is perfect because you have privacy, it’s comfortable and you have room for family and friends. I wouldn’t trade anything for those visits.”

“I know she enjoyed seeing her family and friends under those circumstances, even welcoming her close cousin from Texas,” he said.

He called the care she received perfect and said it was like being at home. Carolyn, who was strong in her faith, was especially blessed by a nurse in the facility who came every night to pray with her.

Don is grateful your donation provided him, Carolyn and their family and friends the chance to be together, comfortably until the end of her life.

“She was a strong individual and up until the last week she could talk to visitors. Her mind was there,” he said. “She looked like Miss Murray State.”