COMMITMENT

When your loved one is nearing end of life, you only want the small things ...

To be together as a family.

To love and hold one another.

To have the privacy to laugh, cry or grieve together.

Recognizing the importance of quality end-oflife services, Masonic Village at Elizabethtown has been providing hospice services since 2009. Masonic Village Hospice serves residents and individuals in residential homes, nursing homes, retirement communities and skilled facilities throughout Lancaster, Dauphin, Lebanon and Eastern York counties.

Declining census due to the pandemic provided an opportunity to re-imagine the way end-of-life services are provided in the Masonic Health Care Center, which provides nursing and memory support care.

Staff proposed a concept for a dedicated end-of-life area specifically designed for residents needing comfort care. The Ben Franklin 3 neighborhood was converted into the new Evergreen neighborhood, providing personalized, convenient and advanced care and monitoring. The new space is tailored to help residents and families create special and lasting memories together in a comfortable, homelike environment. Thoughtful details were incorporated into the design to serve the unique needs of residents and their families.

Evergreen includes 16 private, spacious rooms featuring amenities for visiting family members, such as a pull-out couch, live plants, a television and a refrigerator. Each room has an Amazon Alexa Echo Show device donated by Amazon and set up by Aiva Health, which can play residents’ favorite music, offer a prayer of the day, receive messages from staff or even review the day’s menu.

Private rooms are available for families to grieve and meet with staff counselors. Other rooms for visitors and gatherings include a dining room; a living room; a chapel for prayer and spiritual needs; a children’s space with toys, books and games; a library for resources; a screened-in patio and an office for families working remotely. A designated parking lot offers ease of access.

Residents of Evergreen may utilize Masonic Village Hospice or the hospice provider of their choice. Masonic Village staff working on Evergreen receive specialized end-of-life training.

Renovations to Evergreen were made possible thanks to many generous donors. Two wings of the Evergreen neighborhood were dedicated in honor of significant contributors. Brother Thomas Shott, Mount Olivet Lodge No. 704, Lebanon, contributed in memory of his wife, Dolores, who was a patient in the hospice program when she passed away in 2018. Brother James McCall, Treichler Lodge No. 682, Elizabethtown, and his wife, Virginia, contributed in memory of James’ mother, Julia McCall, and his niece, Jennifer McCall Bailey. A ribbon cutting, with the unveiling of the donor recognition plaques, and open houses were held in October, with the first residents moving in afterward.

“Thanks to generous donors, residents will have the opportunity to spend their last weeks, and even hours, in comfort, surrounded by those who love them, making lasting memories their families will cherish forever,” said Matthew Mayo, assistant executive director.

The name Evergreen was chosen based on the traditional Masonic funeral in which reference is made to Evergreen as the symbol of faith in the immortality of the soul, a part within us which shall continue to exist beyond our physical death.

If you would like to help patients and families create special and lasting memories in a comfortable, supportive, homelike environment, you may make a gift online by visiting masonicvillages.org/donatenow. For more information on other ways to give, call 1-800-599-6454 or email giving@masonicvillages.org.