{"id":24428,"date":"2023-07-10T15:08:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-10T22:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/?p=24428"},"modified":"2023-12-29T09:09:11","modified_gmt":"2023-12-29T17:09:11","slug":"legacy-of-service-provides-flags-for-veterans-in-hospice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/news\/legacy-of-service-provides-flags-for-veterans-in-hospice\/","title":{"rendered":"Legacy of Service Provides Flags for Veterans in Hospice"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article\">\n\t<header class=\"header\">\n\t\t<span class=\"type\"><\/span>\t\t<h1>Legacy of Service Provides Flags for Veterans in Hospice<\/h1>\t\t<time>July 10, 2023<\/time>\n\t<\/header>\n\t<div id=\"block_81f8764d5c33d611632864fb8da3a202\" class=\"shs-block block-news-article entry-content\">\n\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"acf-innerblocks-container\">\n\n<p>Some people have a gift for recognizing a need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you were around Gene Sanders, it happened all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like when he visited <a href=\"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/find-a-location\/samaritan-evergreen-hospice\">Samaritan Evergreen Hospice House<\/a> in<br>Albany, where his daughter Sarah Smith is a certified hospice and palliative nurse and his wife volunteers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gene Sanders was an Army veteran who served 42 years active duty and as a civilian. He noticed the service flags on some of the doors to the inpatient rooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDoes every veteran get a flag?\u201d Gene Sanders wondered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the time, there were not enough. So, Gene Sanders asked his daughter to carry a proposal to hospice leaders to provide flags for every veteran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The service flags for veterans became a family project, which has been incorporated into the traditions at the hospice house. When a person dies, staff do a walk out with family to honor their loved one. If they are a veteran, the service flag is placed over the body and given to the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Gene Sanders died in April 2022, his family decided to continue the flag program as part of his legacy of service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe always wanted to help fellow veterans,\u201d Sarah Smith said. \u201cHe took it upon himself to help others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dianne Sanders recalled how her husband used to invoke a higher power when he pitched his philanthropic ideas. It was a tactic she couldn\u2019t refuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe would come to me and say, \u2018I think God\u2019s telling me that we need to give this car to such and such person,\u2019\u201d Dianne Sanders said. \u201cHow do you argue with God?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They could sell a vehicle and get a little money. But Gene Sanders always had someone in mind who could use their old car more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gene Sanders served three tours in Vietnam, where he was part of the military police, earning a Bronze Star Medal for meritorious achievement. He started out as an Army cook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe loved to cook,\u201d Dianne Sanders said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During his military career, the family lived in Georgia, where Gene Sanders and a team from his church regularly cooked meals at a homeless shelter, feeding as many as 300 people at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat we cook needs to be like something we would eat,\u201d Gene Sanders declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He bought all the meat for the chili, spaghetti and other dishes he prepared at the shelter for more than five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When he was called to serve in South Korea, he went ahead to get things ready for his family\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe had everything all put together, including our rooms,\u201d Smith recalled. \u201cHe tried to give us some familiarity and normalcy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She thinks that\u2019s why it mattered to him that every veteran receives a service flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe wanted to make sure veterans were not forgotten,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His passion and integrity also inspired her career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe found ways to serve others in all that he did,\u201d Smith said. \u201cBeing a nurse is how I am able to serve others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Service flags for veterans at Samaritan Evergreen Hospice are donated by the family of Gene Sanders. Contributions can be made to the Hospice Fund through the Albany General Hospital Foundation at <a href=\"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/giving\">samhealth.org\/Giving<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<aside>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"360\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Diane-Sanders-Sarah-Smith-Veterans-Hospice-CO.jpg\" class=\"attachment-cta size-cta wp-post-image\" alt=\"Diane Sanders and Sarah Smith standing with veterans hospice.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Diane-Sanders-Sarah-Smith-Veterans-Hospice-CO.jpg 360w, https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Diane-Sanders-Sarah-Smith-Veterans-Hospice-CO-300x250.jpg 300w, https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Diane-Sanders-Sarah-Smith-Veterans-Hospice-CO-120x100.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/><\/figure>\t\t<\/aside>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Service flags are given to every veteran hospice patient through the legacy of Gene Sanders and his family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":11656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","_shs_workflow_notes":"July 10, 2023","_shs_exclude_from_navigation":false,"_shs_promote_article_on_blogs":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"news-topics":[279,291],"news-types":[272],"services":[242],"specialty":[34],"class_list":["post-24428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","news-topics-giving","news-topics-veterans","news-types-news","services-hospice-palliative-care","specialty-hospice"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24428"},{"taxonomy":"news-topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topics?post=24428"},{"taxonomy":"news-types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-types?post=24428"},{"taxonomy":"services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/services?post=24428"},{"taxonomy":"specialty","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/specialty?post=24428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}