THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601070087
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Long : 121 lines
For years, a visit from Nora McDougald was often regarded as both a blessing and a curse.
The kindly woman's presence often forced families to reluctantly face a terminal illness. But she almost always improved the lives of those dealing with death.
On Dec. 31, the 72-year-old North Carolinian retired as the primary social worker for the bereavement program at Albemarle Hospice, leaving a void that many in the community say will be hard to fill.
``A lot of people did get the idea that hospice came in and said `You're gonna die in six months.' But that wasn't the case,'' McDougald said Thursday, four days into her second retirement.
``The philosophy of hospice is not about dying. Hospice is about living with a quality of life. But for so many people, hospice spells out, in big letters, death and dying.''
The program, part of Albemarle Home Care, helps supply the physical and emotional needs of patients with a physician-assessed life expectancy of six months or less. The family is assisted as well.
Staff and trained volunteers follow survivors a year after a loved one dies with individual visits, letters and support groups.
In many cases, McDougald is credited with improving clients' living standards, particularly among low-income families.
``She really was very supportive of her clients and a good advocate to see that they received all of the services that they needed,'' said Beth Ehrhardt, coordinator of Albemarle Hospice.
Ehrhardt recalled one man living in an unsafe environment. A huge water leak had created a quasi-moat around the mobile home, which was also extremely cold in the winter.
McDougald helped find a plumber who volunteered to fix the leak, drastically reducing the man's water bills. Someone also weatherized the trailer.
Another time, McDougald stood in line to apply for food stamps for an indigent family that couldn't afford groceries.
And then there was the widow who developed serious health problems shortly after her husband died. McDougald spent her day off waiting with the woman in the doctor's office and watching over her son.
``Those are all things I definitely consider being beyond the call of duty,'' Ehrhardt said.
And calls were something else McDougald received a lot of, having given her home phone number to most of her clients.
``I felt like nights were the time they needed it most,'' she explained.
``She was totally committed, day or night, seven days a week, on vacation or not, to the care of the patient and the family,'' said Kay Cherry, director of Albemarle Home Care, which is part of the District Health Department.
``She really is the ultimate model for a hospice caregiver,'' Cherry added of McDougald's balance of professionalism and compassion.
If McDougald seemed to relate so well to grieving families, it may have been because she dealt for so long with her husband's terminal illness.
In 1972, doctors told Louis McDougald he'd live another two to five years, but he survived for 20 years before succumbing to ``tobacco addiction that led to circulatory problems,'' McDougald said.
By then Nora McDougald, who helped start the 12-year-old hospice program, had left in 1986 to care for her husband, whom she married in high school. She returned to the field in 1990.
``I guess I have to say I was guided back to that,'' said McDougald, who began her health department career as a clerk and X-ray technician in 1962.
McDougald answered a newspaper ad and was immediately hired back.
The couple moved from Perquimans County's Snug Harbor to a home north of Elizabeth City just a month before Louis McDougald was hospitalized in October 1991. It remains Nora's residence today.
McDougald was a member of East Carolina University's first class of social work graduates in 1982. A year later, she and two other women - Wilma Harris and Kay Whidbee - were instrumental in starting the hospice program.
The program, which has aided thousands of Albemarle residents since its inception, serves Chowan, Perquimans, Pasquotank, Camden and Currituck counties.
Most local hospice patients are afflicted with cancer, particularly in the lungs, McDougald said. ``Whether it comes from North Carolina being a tobacco state, I don't know,'' she said.
The program has teamed up with the Jeff Jones HIV Consortium, named after a hemophiliac who died of AIDS.
McDougald and other hospice workers often provided one of the few sources of comfort for AIDS victims and their families, especially in the early 1980s when even some health care professionals avoided contact.
``It seems the shame is not as great for the families and for the patient,'' she said. ``I think society is beginning to realize there are a multiple of ways for AIDS to be transmitted.
``I feel like more people now realize that sin did not cause it all.''
During her time with Albemarle Hospice, McDougald served as a social worker, coordinator, volunteer coordinator and, finally, as the bereavement coordinator.
Her position is not expected to be filled, Ehrhardt said, because their census is ``on the low side.''
Both women say, though, the demand is there.
``We have a really high incidence of cancer in this area, and we're not seeing the numbers of people we should be in terms of hospice services,'' Ehrhardt said.
The coordinator said she hopes to train more volunteers in bereavement support to help fill the void.
``Hospice is a very needed service and getting to be much more so as it is getting to be better understood as care for the terminally ill,'' McDougald said.
The mother of five said she plans to spend more time with her children, grandchildren and two remaining sisters - all of whom are well represented, as are those who have departed, in photographs flanking the walls and tabletops of her home.
She also hopes to remain active at the Elizabeth City Senior Citizens Center and Berea Baptist Church.
``I have said for some time that I would know when it was time to retire,'' she said. ``I have served my purpose, so I think it's time for me to get away.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot
``I have said for some time that I would know when it was time to
retire,'' Nora McDougald said. She plans to volunteer more now.
by CNB