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Skip Wood provides comfort to fellow veterans

Stuart News - 4/16/2018

Skip Wood is a Veteran Visitor for VNA Hospice in Vero Beach.

Wood honors hospice patients who have served in the military with a special pinning ceremony, a task he joyfully takes on being a veteran himself. A few times a week, Wood is notified that he has a new patient, and he jumps into action researching information on the patient. He gets information from the Internet on the veteran's unit, and he will gladly spend up to half a day researching each patient so that he is well informed before his visit.

Wood will then visit the VNA to pick up the veteran's care package. During his visit, he presents the veteran with a certificate of commemoration, a uniformed teddy bear that plays the veteran's service song, a red, white and blue lap robe handmade by a VNA Hospice volunteer, and a special pin to be worn on their service hat or lapel. Wood understands he is a guest, so depending on the situation, he will spend 15 minutes to a couple hours with his patients, many of whom have become friends, resulting in some family members even becoming Hospice volunteers.

Wood feels like the lucky one, because of how much he gets out of volunteering. He loves walking into the front door of the VNA and getting his next patient, because he knows he is about to embark on another journey down memory lane with a veteran who is most likely his age and has a lifetime of knowledge and memories to share.

-- Stephanie Nelson