Hospice provider and shelter honors homeless veteran for service

BY TAYLER SHAW TSHAW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Although he woke up in pain, George Daniel Read said he spent the morning at Rocky Mountain Refuge for End of Life Care trying to make himself presentable, shaving his face and sporting a new haircut.

It was a big day. A ceremony to honor Read, who has cancer and is receiving hospice care, was planned for that afternoon to recognize his time serving in Vietnam as a Marine. e ceremony was a combination of e orts by TRU Community Care, a health care organization providing hospice care to Read, and the Rocky Mountain Refuge, where he is currently staying after becoming unhoused about two years ago.

“Hospice care in our country is designed to be in your home with your family assisting,” said Brother James Patrick Hall, the executive director of Rocky Mountain Refuge and a friar with the Brotherhood of St. Gregory. “And if you don’t have either one, there’s not much for you to go to.”

Hall said Rocky Mountain Refuge is a specialized shelter that o ers around-the-clock custodial, familystyle care for unhoused people who are on hospice.

“ e hospice organizations do the hospice care. We do what a family would do,” he said. “People come to us. We take care of them until they pass.”

TRU Community Care has veteran volunteers who o er services such as companionship and pinning ceremonies for veteran patients receiving end-of-life care.

For Read, it was a smaller ceremony held in the sunroom of the Denver Rescue Mission’s building, e Crossing, where the Rocky Mountain Refuge is also housed.

Larry Sturgeon, a veteran volunteer for TRU Community Care who also served in Vietnam, presented to Read several items including a framed certi cate in his honor, a Vietnam bead set, a star from an American ag and a ag pin.

“Today, we honor Daniel for his service to our country,” Sturgeon said. “On behalf of a grateful nation, sta