Dan Grady may be Bronx-born, but his heart was stolen by the Hudson Valley and its hiking and biking trails when he was just a boy visiting for weekend camping.
That same heart beats in his work as executive director of Hospice of Orange and Sullivan Counties, where he believes “every day is a gift, no matter what the challenge, and not to be taken for granted.”
As a youngster, Grady”™s Boy Scout troop would come up from the urban jungle to the wooded slopes and winding trails to hone their camping skills. “Even though Van Cortlandt Park was my playground, it had nothing on Bear Mountain Park,” which included a few midnight raids on Red Apple Rest, then the only game in town and open 24 hours, seven days a week. “We got holy hell for those night maneuvers,” smiled Grady. “But where could you get a hot dog in the Bronx at 2 a.m. back then? We were in heaven.”
Grown-up Grady moved to Orange County, where he worked as a senior health planner for Hudson Valley Health Systems Agency. “That”™s where I met Sister Anne Daly and got involved with hospice”™s holistic approach to dying. She has been with this organization from its inception and is a driving force behind quality of life for people at the end of life; she”™s a gem, with both sensible and spiritual vision for those in need.”
Though Grady wasn”™t planning to make palliative care a career, Sister Anne put his feet on a different path, “where my degree in business management came in very handy.” So does an inner spirituality Grady says goes hand in hand with palliative care, “whether you are a believer or not. People, with great faith or no faith, still believe in the human spirit.”
Hospice incorporated in 1988 and Grady was chosen as its executive director, a position he has held since.
He has helped it grow ”“ and grown with it ”“ from a community-based program to brick-and-mortar office with a staff of social workers, volunteer caregivers and an 11-bed Kaplan Family Hospice Residence that opened in 2006.
Quite a hike for the man who went from sneaking out of Boy Scout camp to get a hot dog at the Red Apple Rest in his boyhood jaunts to the Hudson Valley.
“We have 135 people in our program right now with as many volunteer caregivers, who work with our social workers and the family”™s doctor,” said Grady. “Most are at home with their families; some are in the hospital. Nine people are at the Residence.
“It is a 24/7 operation with no age restrictions for visitors or visiting hours and a children”™ grieving center. We have a nurse practitioner on staff at all times, and family doctors continue relationships with their patients. Our mission is to help those who come into Hospice and their families make the transition.”
That in itself can be a difficult climb, says the avid mountain biker who hikes when roads are too snowy to ride. Either way, “I get up there where the air is clear and it does give me a sense of inner peace and fortitude.
“We have a holistic approach to death and a mission focused on helping people meet it with dignity and without fear. We have a 10-week program for people who want to volunteer as a Hospice caregiver; it is not for everyone. It takes a special person to go into a situation where someone has been given six months or less to live. Volunteers may do something as simple as putting medications together or reading to the patient or perhaps fill out forms. But generally, they get involved in family dynamics and that includes not just emotional upheavals, but paperwork, getting medical forms in order, giving families a bit of respite for themselves. They are literally a shoulder to lean on, a hand to hold and someone who can work with an array of personalities, all with one focus, making the person who is meeting the end of life as comfortable and cared for as humanly and as humanely possible.
“We keep a positive outlook because birth is the beginning of the journey and the end of life is a journey, too,” said Grady. “We have caregivers who have been with us more than a decade who tell me they feel like they receive more than they give, and I can relate to that feeling because I feel it myself.”
When Grady goes hiking or biking, he takes in every minute. “In the Hudson Valley, the choices are endless: from Bear Mountain”™s trails to the Shawangunks, there are places to walk and ride and to remember each day is a gift. I think more exhilarating than the ride downhill, when you can feel the wind at your face, is knowing you are getting to have that day and that moment in time to enjoy the gift of life, something that makes the job even more fulfilling. You want every person whose life you enter ”“ for however long you are in it ”“ to have that same experience.”
