Ada was a legend in her community. She was politically active and quite outspoken. And she had the look of a magazine cover girl. Her hair was always elegantly sculpted, her nails freshly painted and her make-up perfect. Ada always looked her best and had a story to tell to anyone willing to listen.

Ada was a VITAS homecare patient with a colostomy—but she wouldn’t allow anyone to assist her with it. She lived alone, but no matter how weak she became, she refused extra help and adamantly refused nursing home placement.

One evening Ada’s bowels became obstructed. She began vomiting and fell to the floor. She managed to call VITAS. Upon arrival at Ada’s home, the on-call nurse arranged for Ada to be taken to the VITAS inpatient hospice unit.

The nurses at the inpatient unit didn’t know Ada. They thought nothing unusual about her hair being messy and her makeup smeared. They cleaned her up, but had no way of knowing how strange it was for Ada to remain silent during their entire shift.

The next day, Brenda, Ada’s VITAS home care nurse, learned of the previous night’s incident and went to see Ada at the inpatient unit. She was shocked when the inpatient nurses told her Ada couldn’t talk. “That can’t be!” Brenda retorted, “ Ada will go to heaven cursing!”

When Brenda walked into Ada’s room, she hardly recognized her. Ada had messy hair, no make-up, chipped nails—and she did not have her teeth in! Brenda held Ada ’s hand and gently told her that the nurses didn’t think she could talk. Ada opened her eyes and said, “Who says Ada can’t talk? Who wants to listen to someone who looks like this?”

Brenda gently combed Ada’s hair, put in her teeth, and told her, “I’ll be back in five minutes.” She rushed to the gift shop and proceeded to buy most of the cosmetics they had.

Brenda ran back to Ada’s room, where she did her best to apply the makeup to Ada ’s exacting standards. Within 30 minutes Ada was fussing, cussing, looking her best and had everyone in stitches, just as if she were in her own home.