Haven in Hospice: Care for End of Life
A close look at Torrance Memorial Hospice provides an understanding of a nationwide movement to accommodate and dignify the end of life. Bob Barker, 87, has been receiving palliative care from Torrance Memorial Hospice for more than a year in his Palos Verdes home. Photo It was young love when Bob and Bobby Barker first met on a date in October of 1945. She was just 20 years old, and he a 21-year-old in the Navy. Bobby, now 86, recalled the thrill of their early days together. “He had this tremendous sense of humor…” she said in the living room of the couple’s Palos Verdes residence within earshot of Bob’s bedroom, where he was fast asleep. “The rest was history.” They got married the following June in Bobby’s home church in Pennsylvania. Honeymoon festivities took place in Williamsburg, Virginia. Together, the couple cultivated a storybook life. They had three boys and a girl, and in 1966, relocated to the West Coast. When Bob was diagnosed with pulmonary heart disease about three years ago, he became bedridden and had to be hooked to an oxygen machine. A subsequent bout with pneumonia slowly diminished the muscles on his arms and face, which took away his ability to speak…
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