WINDBER, Pa. – For the past 36 years, Davidsville resident Peggy Lichtenfels has been caring for the terminally ill as a volunteer at Windber Hospice, 600 Somerset Ave., Windber.
Her affection when caring for patients remains unshakable.
“Most of our patients have six months or less to live,” she said. “I know in my heart that I’ve tried my best to help people through this difficult time.”
Lichtenfels, 85, shared her story with The Tribune-Democrat at the hospice at Chan Soon-Shiong Medical Center at Windber.
Windber Hospice was founded by Dr. Earl Shope in 1977 as the first hospice program in Pennsylvania and the first rural hospice in the country. Lichtenfels said her sister Frankie Bock was the first volunteer.
“My sister Frankie kept bugging me,” she said.
“She said, ‘Oh, Peggy, you’re a natural caregiver.’ I didn’t think I could do it,” Lichtenfels said. “I prayed about it and prayed about it, and the Lord has been helping me ever since.”
Lichtenfels said she learned early that the best way to help the grieving is to be a good listener.
“Families are traumatized, families are in denial,” she said. “When you sit and listen to them, and help them to understand what’s going on and how our good Lord, even in dying, has it all planned out for us.”
Lichtenfels said patients and their families appreciate her comfort and guidance.
“I’ve become their new best friend,” she said.
Windber Hospice serves all of Somerset, Cambria and Bedford counties, and parts of Blair, Indiana and Westmoreland counties. The program averages 80 to 90 patients in homes and in the facility.
The volunteer program suffered a setback during the 2020 outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“There was a whole year when we couldn’t send volunteers out to check on families and patients to make sure they had food in the house,” she said. “We tried to work around it. We would shop, and the nurses and aides would take it to them.”
Jessica Klosky has spent nine years as the bereavement and volunteer coordinator for the hospice and the hospital. She called Lichtenfels’ work indispensable to the program.
“She’s my everything,” Klosky said. She’s my right-hand lady. She’s special to this program, and special to the volunteers.”
Lichtenfels and her husband, Ernie (1939-2016), were marred for 57 years. Ernie Lichtenfels was the vice president of Moxham Lumber Co., 150 DuPont St., Johnstown, where he worked for 52 years.
The couple raised their four children and the four children they “inherited,” Peggy Lichtenfels said.
“We were the godparents named in the will,” she said. “I can write a book about raising eight teenagers.”
These days, Lichtenfels needs a cane to get about. It doesn’t stop her from volunteering.
“It helps me stay busy, and keeps my mind off my aches and pains,” she said. “When you get older, you’ll remember that old Peggy said, ‘Every day is a new adventure.’ ”