Agnes Cassidy - What's In An Age?

St. Luke’s Eucharistic minister Agnes Cassidy says she sometimes shocks patients when visiting them on her Monday rounds at the St. Luke’s campus of California Pacific Medical Center. “I might be talking to a patient who says that they are in their 70’s or 80’s and can’t do this or that anymore,” she says with a hint of a County Sligo brogue. “I ask them how old they think I am, and many of them are very shocked to hear that I am 100 years old. Then they ask me if I’m still walking even though they saw me come in on my own two feet.”

Agnes had never volunteered until she came to St. Luke’s over 10 years ago through a neighbor who was also a Eucharistic Minister. Agnes is great medicine for our patients, sharing her abundant kindness and playful wit with everyone she encounters. She visits approximately 50 patients each Monday, offering Holy Communion to Catholic patients, and visits anyone else who would like to talk with someone. “It’s very rewarding to visit the patients at St. Luke’s. When you come in the room, the patients just light up. People appreciate the handshakes and the hugs and ask me to come back.”

Congratulations to Jacqueline Matzen, Bereavement Counselor and Hospice Volunteer Coordinator

Congratulations to Jacqueline Matzen on completing coursework and receiving a certificate in bereavement counseling. Jacqueline is the volunteer coordinator for both the Davies Campus and Coming Home Hospice, for which CPMC Foundation annually raises funds.

The Department of Volunteer Services was the recipient of a grant from the CPMC Foundation Grants and Disbursement Committee to develop two volunteer programs to support palliative and end of life care at California Pacific. The first program is a bereavement program where volunteers call family members of patients who have died every few months following the death. The calls are to offer support. The second program, NODA (No One Dies Alone) is an extension of our palliative care volunteer program. This program will train volunteers to support patients who might not have family members or friends to be with them at the end of their life.

Jacqueline will work with the hospital palliative care team to make these two volunteer programs a reality. Jacqueline is very dedicated to providing comfort and compassion to patients who need end-of-life care, therefore, initiating the Bereavement and Palliative Care programs are close to Jacqueline’s heart. She feels fortunate that CPMC recognizes and supports the value of these programs.


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and a lifetime of giving.