Front row: Dr. Barbara Parks, Marcia Brodie, Betty Ann Levin, and Lawrence Steingold. Back row: David Abraham, Jerry Meltsner, Jeff Cooper, and Neil Stein.
Thursday, July 12 will be remembered as a momentous occasion, as the community honored Freda H. Gordon, of blessed memory, and officially open the Freda H. Gordon Hospice and Palliative Care of Tidewater.
Tavia and Steven Gordon, along with Randi and Steven Gordon’s children, Marah, Evan and Eliana, ceremoniously cut the ribbon, as the family and community remembered Freda Gordon and dedicated the new organization.
Tavia Gordon remarked how happy and delighted he and his family are to have made the gift that honors Freda.
Steven Gordon added that the establishment of the hospice is “perhaps the most fitting tribute to both Freda Gordon’s life and her life’s work.” He spoke of his mother’s upbringing and the fact that she was the first in her family to complete four years of college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, during a time when few women were admitted. Earning a pharmacy degree, she spent 30 years as a pharmacist at Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters, where she found a passion and was a part of revolutionary and life changing treatments.
“Hospice is a lot like Mom,” commented Steven. “It is just like all of the people she touched. It is taking care of one person at a time, one family at a time.“ He went on to say, “Hospice care fulfills a vital need at an extraordinarily difficult time in people’s lives—THAT is what Freda would have wanted.”
The Gordon family was joined by the founding officers and board members of Freda H. Gordon Hospice and Palliative Care of Tidewater, as well as many community leaders, supporters and friends of the Gordon family.
A partnership between Beth Sholom Village and Jewish Family Service of Tidewater, the hospice received state licensure at the end of May and is currently providing services.
For more information, contact Jessica J. Willingham, RN, BSN, hospice administrator, at 321-2242 or go to www.hpctidewater.com.