Jane Lewis

Specialized Volunteer Service
Montgomery Hospice, Rockville, MD

Jane Lewis became a volunteer for Montgomery and Prince Georges Hospice in March 2012, shortly after she retired from 26 years of employment with Lockheed Martin.  She was so appreciative of the support her family received as her mother was dying from cancer, that she knew she wanted to be a hospice volunteer when she retired 10 years after her mother’s death.  She eagerly accepted Hospice at Home assignments upon completing her training and rarely said “no” to any assignment.  Shortly after the Montgomery Kids program was formed, the families of the pediatric patients began requesting memory projects including: framed handprint designs, creative mod podge pieces, scrapbooks and personalized Christmas ornaments are just a few of the projects she brought to life for these special families.

Jane also volunteers her time at our in-patient facility, Casey House, where she not only visits with patients but assists with assignments that help to free up the staff. Jane stocks medical supplies and performs the linen counts for twice weekly deliveries.  In 2017 Jane became interested in sharing her time and talents with our Complementary Therapies department, where she became trained in Reiki. She quickly became a gifted energy practitioner.  When there was a greater need for Comfort Touch (massage) volunteers, she added this skill to her talents and helped expand the Complementary Therapies department’s ability to server more patients. Jane inspires our volunteer managers with her willingness to take on all types of assignments seeing them as opportunities to learn more and to provide assistance to those in need at the end of life. As Jane reflects over her nearly 10 years of volunteering, she believes she has grown tremendously as a volunteer and now feels most fulfilled because of her Reiki and Comfort Touch work.