Flossmoor foundation funds last wishes for hospice patients, boost for nursing students

A foundation that was created to help hospice patients and their loved ones handle medical costs is also providing comfort when families need it most.

Often, that comes in the form of resources to make the most of their remaining time.

“Anything a patient wants to do, go to a restaurant, go to a holiday party,” said Gabrielle Bello, director of the Oasis Foundation, which was formed to assist patients at Flossmoor-based Oasis Hospice and Palliative Care, Inc. and its standalone inpatient facility The House of Goshen.

For one adult patient, that help was as simple as providing a doll for companionship.

“Now she has it with her wherever she goes,” Bello said.

Formed in 2021, the Oasis Foundation raises money for education, well being, community events, funerals and transportation, officials said. It also funds a program called Hearts Desires, which endeavors to provide for patients’ last wishes requests.

As part of its commitment to education, the foundation offers $2,500 Pathways to Purpose scholarships to students from Cook, Will and DuPage counties who are pursuing health care or social work careers and have an interest in geriatrics or personal experience with hospice. Information is at www.oasisthefoundation.org/pathwaytopurposescholarship.

“We’re trying to invest in the future caregiver,” Bello said. “I think especially what we see is a lot of people don’t have that experience when they come out of nursing school … we’re putting that on their radar.”

Bello’s parents, Sade and Hakeem Bello, founded Oasis and are CEO and CFO, respectively. She began volunteering for Oasis doing wellness checks and discovered the need for services funded by the foundation.

“I realized there was a lot of need for wrap-around services and we couldn’t provide,” Gabrielle Bello said. She recalls thinking, “I wish we could do something like that.”

Several relatives of hospice patients said the expert experience and compassion of staff were crucial and that they were glad to hear about a scholarship that would help fund the education of future staff with the same talents.

“There’s a need out there,” said Afrika Rouselle, of Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood, whose mother received hospice services from Oasis. “It’s critical. I think it’s just as critical as having the proper staffing and proper medication services when we are birthing.”

Rouselle has also benefited from bereavement counseling from Oasis, as well as transportation from the foundation funds. Her mom has had several heart attacks, triple bypass surgery and suffers from dementia.

“It’s been very helpful to have the bereavement counseling because my mom is fading,” said Rouselle. “She has four grandchildren and I have to explain and be able to maintain my emotions.

“I’m an only child, so my mom is my best friend,” she said.

Rouselle had been seeing her mother weekly, though now visits twice weekly enabled by the transportation funded by the foundation.

Bethy Beno, whose mother received hospice services from Oasis at home last year, has volunteered there for three years. When her mother died, she asked that in lieu of flowers, people donate to the foundation.

She said she was glad the money would be going toward the future careers of students who might consider hospice.

“It’s an exceptionally important field because the people who have been with Oasis for a long time, really feel it is their calling to deal with very sick people. And there are a lot of people they employ and hire, and two to three weeks later they’re gone.

“The more experience they have when they come to us for employment, they know what to expect.”

Beno said Oasis showed her how helpful good hospice care could be for patients and their families.

“The building is absolutely beautiful,” she said. “Their caring philosophy is just heard loud and clear every time they talk to employees.”

Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.