To the Editor:

On Sept. 30 I retired from my work with Hospice and Palliative Care of St. Lawrence Valley. I was part of the original team that began services for the terminally ill in the autumn of 1986. Through the last forty years, I have been the medical director and most recently a staff physician. For the first twenty years, I filled this position as a volunteer and I am particularly proud of that service.

Our community is very lucky to have Hospice services. It has championed a team approach to patient care including medical expertise, social services and spiritual care. It brings this care and compassion into the homes of those with loved ones in the last months of life. This work has been a most rewarding part of my medical practice in this community.

My husband, John Dewar, MD, and I came to the North Country because we wanted to perform the full spectrum of family medicine, including obstetrics, in a rural community. We were lucky that we worked at Canton-Potsdam Hospital while it was still our community hospital. We love the beauty of St. Lawrence County, its proximity to the Adirondacks, its great schools for our children and now our granddaughter, and especially NCPR translators for all the musical accompaniment to the thousands of miles I drove doing house calls.

A special thanks to the 50 members of the community who came to the Hospice building on Sept. 30 – current staff, retired staff and even some former patients from my medical practice. My sincere gratitude for your personal thank you that day.

In closing, take some time each day to look around at this beautiful community and consider being a volunteer for a cause dear to your heart.

Sandra A. McCloy, MD
Potsdam