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BY LANCE GAITHER

lance.gaither@bluegrassnewsmedia.com

If you can’t bring the fisherman to the lake, bring the lake to the fisherman.

When a patient at Stanford Care nursing home wanted to go fishing one more time, his Hospice volunteer Brenda Short along with the Heritage Hospice Director of Volunteer Services Wendy Hellard, and Volunteer Services Coordinator Renee Bibler came up with a plan to make his wish come true.

With his condition preventing him from being transported to the lake, they instead brought the lake to him by setting up a small pool with life fish ready to be caught. The patient’s name was withheld due to HIPPA regulations.

“We make things possible for patients that want to do something they can’t do.” Hellard said. “He had not been out of his room for 2 years and wanted to go fishing one last time. All of these volunteers got together to make his wish come true. We got him a fishing shirt and fisherman’s hat. We had an artist from Hustonville recreate the scene from his old fishing spot. It takes a lot of people to pull this off and we are so thankful we could do this for our patient.”

Even though the weather was hot, and this fish weren’t biting at first, the patient was still having a good time wetting a line. After some ice was added to the water to cool it down, the fisherman got a bite and snagged a fish.

“I never miss a fish when I get a bite,” he said.

Heritage Hospice is always looking for volunteers and will have a volunteer training day on Sept. 16.

“This is just one of the kind of projects that our volunteers get to do,” Hellard said. “They do lots of other things that aren’t even related to patients. We have a lot who come here for visits which is why we wanted to make this special for him.”

For more information about volunteering for Heritage Hospice, call 859-236-2425 or go to heritagehospice.com.