Lewis Talbert Austin, Texas

By Iris Willingham
Published Lewis Talbert

When one speaks of heroes, a number of names ultimately come to one’s mind. We tend to think of heroes and celebrities synchronously - Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Oprah Winfrey, I could go on and on naming people we all know like a household name.

Let me tell you a little about me so you will know where I am coming from. I have worked in hospitals since 1978, I began in the Admitting department and worked relentlessly. No, I am not tooting my own horn but back in the day, employees were required to care about the patients.   They were like family, they were family. My favorites still stand out in my mind, an eighteen year old cancer patient who kidded his younger brother by pretending he was dying and always drifting off before he could tell him where “the money was”. Another eighteen year old who was a student in college and went to the emergency room so much that the doctors suspected she was a drug addict - she was hiding her illness. I could regale you with stories from patients that I have met over the years, throughout many states.

And so, I became disenchanted with healthcare in the past two or three years. I began to see the care leave healthcare and I decided to make a difference. I am beginning a trek, it may take me a year to discover exactly what are the emotional needs of terminally ill patients and their families.   I can only imagine the heartache, when hope is gone - what else do you have left?

I am beginning a journey of joining forums where I can speak to those persons directly affected. So many times people want to help but they attempt to help based upon their own assumptions of what people need and/or want. A group of colleagues and I have gotten together and we have put together a dream. A dream to provide loaner laptops to terminally ill patients so that they may chat with other patients, have recreational activities (when they are not permitted to leave their rooms) and provide a way for the parents to communicate to other family members who are perhaps too far away to travel.