10/06/2025
This story began months ago with a patient and her emotionally challenged son who lived with her. From the beginning, our partners realized that her son was of utmost importance to her. She had a fear of leaving him with an insurmountable amount of debt due to no funeral or burial funds. One of her TMITs was her family, most importantly, her son.
Our social worker, Tara Carter, got to work on helping with that. Knowing that her end was fast approaching, Tara got to work and was able to connect her with Restore Life, which would pay for her cremation expenses in full. The patient was thrilled, and so was her son.
Tara helped them submit the application and got it approved before her passing. She enjoyed her last days, knowing this was resolved and her son would have no burial debt. The patient passed, and Restore Life came to pick up the body and to return the ashes to the son as promised. The son was excited to have the remains come home, and he told the office administrator that he placed his mom in the kitchen where she loved.
Weeks passe and the son was invited to the semi-annual memorial service of the Cedar Bluff office. He shared stories about his mom and had remorse that no service had been conducted for her. His mom had two songs picked out that she wanted played at her memorial. He felt guilty that she hadn't had a service, but he simply did not know how to organize such an event.
The team created an impromptu service, played those songs, and partners paid tribute to his mother. He welled up in pride and left that service knowing his mom had a memorial service to honor her. He felt special, but more so, he felt accomplished. The guilt and disappointment he had come in with did not leave with him that day.
