Support Deb Trueheart's Family Through Her Hospice Journey

My dear friend, Deb Trueheart, has been a teacher, a healer and a lover of life. In 2007 while she was on her way to facilitate a training of her Curriculum “Living Into Wholeness,”, she was involved in a car accident where the airbag deployed. She sat in the dust of those chemicals for some time. Five months later she was diagnosed with Intestinal Lung Disease (ILD), a terminal disease that causes fibrosis in the lungs.

The life expectancy of those with ILD is 3-7 years. Deb has lived with it for 17 years! (Which is the way she does things.) She went about living life even when they were telling her “You’re a very sick woman.” She has been denied a lung transplant by two different centers.

The recent brave decision to go into Hospice was not an easy choice but Deb knew it was time, and she is now choosing to focus on the quality of her life.

This past year has been especially taxing not just on her body but on her family as well. It was her plan to visit her family in Massachusetts for a few months and return to Venice, Florida, where she has lived for the past 10 years. This year she had 3 hospitalizations and 2 stays in rehab centers and it was clear she would not get back to Florida.

The last 15 months has been incredibly challenging for Pamela, Deb’s daughter, and her family. Her grandson, AJ, gave up his room so that Deb could have a place to sleep and tend to her physical routines and procedures that helped to keep her alive.

This transition for the Whittle-Rhynd family, Pamela and Alex and grandchildren AJ and Matty, and Deb’s son Brian, has not been easy. Pamela graduated nursing schoo,l passed her nursing exam and will be licensed so she can obtain work in the near future. Needless to say, being the caretaker of her mom has kept Pamela very busy. If any of you have ever been the sole caretaker of a family member you know how much emotional energy it takes and then tack on tending to two children, a husband, a home and nourishing them all, while in nursing school.....well, you can only imagine what their lives have been like.

When Deb decided she was choosing to let go of fighting the disease and concentrate on how much life she could still have with hospice as support, they knew she could not remain upstairs. The whole family worked together to transform their living room into Mom’s room. They cleaned, tore up carpet, laid new flooring, and even painted the walls her favorite color - purple. That room has become the gathering place for the family.

Preparing a space for Deb and taking care of her have become their singular focus - one of great Love. But it has placed a huge burden on their finances. Alex has had little opportunity to work and Pamela needs to take the final nursing exam before she can look for work. When they went to Florida to retrieve some of Deb’s belongings, they had car trouble and were stranded for a week before the dealership could fix it at a very hefty bill. Sometimes they feel very discouraged.

Thus, this loving family has fallen behind on rent and other bills and could greatly benefit from your generosity. Please help this family continue to focus on what’s important, being with Deb in whatever time she has left. Any amount you can contribute is greatly appreciated.

With gratitude and love,

Diane