Kootenai | Kootenai Health | Issue 3, 2021

In the Name of Love A local woman honors her husband through houghtful don tions By Kim Anderson There’s a woman in our town you know. She grew up here, married her teenage sweetheart and raised her children here. Theirs wasn’t a life of wealth and privilege, but of honest work. Her name isn’t on a building or park—it's someplace much grander. It’s stamped on the hearts of those she worked with, those she has helped and those she has loved. Through the years, she and her family came to Kootenai Health for care. They had their scares, as families do, but in 2008, it became serious. Her beloved husband of 50 years received a diagnosis no one wants: pancreatic cancer. “The people who treated him at Kootenai were the most kind, wonderful people. They work with cancer patients all day long. It has to be hard for them, but no matter how many times we came to the hospital, they stayed sweet and wonderful,” she said. Honoringhismemory In 2009, her husband passed away. Cancer took his life, but it couldn’t touch their love for one another. Today, 12 years after his passing, she still weeps when she speaks of him. It is in his memory that she regularly gives to the Kootenai Health Foundation’s cancer support fund. “I like that I have the ability at this point in my life to help,” she said. “They are a wonderful organization. When my husband was there, they loved him. I know they did.” She has asked that her name be kept private, not to protect her privacy but to spark your imagination. She could be a woman you see in the store. She might be your neighbor. Maybe your children went to school with hers. Maybe the person you have in mind is just someone very much like her. And maybe, you are very much like her yourself. “Making a gift to a program that is important to you and your loved one is a beautiful way to honor them while also helping others,” said Julie Holt, president of the Kootenai Health Foundation. “What better way to celebrate someone’s life than by making a gift that will help make the lives of others better?” 20