James L.

Dear Susie,

Thank you so much for the card. I am pleased to say that mum’s passing was peaceful and that all of three her children were with her in the days leading up to her death and on the day that she died.

When we first contacted Sunshine Care it was, as you know, a difficult time for us. Mum, who was 87, had been diagnosed with cancer some months previously and had been finding it increasingly difficult to cope at home. With great reluctance we arranged for her to go into a care home.

This was not a successful move: she was very unhappy there, and after a couple of weeks we decided to bring her home and to arrange for a live-in carer to be with her. It was in those circumstances that we contacted Sunshine Care. We found the initial meeting with Susie extremely reassuring: not only because it was arranged very quickly and involved a personal visit from the owner of the business, but also because of Susie’s obvious experience and compassion. Shortly afterwards Susie was introduced to mum in the care home and, on the basis of her visits, recommended to us a number of carers who she felt would be able to give mum the support she needed. Having read through their profiles we decided that Eva might be the best person for mum, a decision that was confirmed from my very first telephone conversation with her. Eva is not only very experienced in caring for elderly people with complex needs, but she is also an enormously sympathetic person. Mum took to her immediately, and, though they were only together a short time, soon referred to Eva as her friend.

It quickly became apparent that we were right to have moved mum out of the care home. However, as she became more poorly with the cancer a decision was taken to move her to a hospice. This caused us great anxiety as none of us (her three children) would be able to be with her in hospice during the day. Our anxiety was increased by the uncertainty of mum’s prognosis: it was very unclear how long mum had left; indeed it was not even clear at that stage whether she would remain in the hospice until she died. As mum had grown so close to Eva we didn’t want to say goodbye to Eva and simply leave mum in the hospice on her own. By this stage mum was mentally fragile and would simply not have understood what was going on.

We contacted Sunshine Care and asked if it would be possible for Eva to stay on, helping to care for mum in the hospice.

We are hugely grateful for the flexibility that Sunshine Care showed in arranging for that to happen without hesitation.

Eva continued to care for mum tirelessly and compassionately until she could do no more – the day before mum died. Eva was a true friend to our mother and to all of us. She is a very special person and none of us will forget her.

Yours sincerely,
James L.