Farmer in hospice takes one last trip to the farm

10/25/24 at 03:00 AM

Farmer in hospice takes one last trip to the farm 
Sanford Health; by Mick Garry; 10/23/24 
Marvin Miller grew up on a farm near Parker, South Dakota, and then farmed the land himself after his mother and father retired. ... He is being cared for at Sanford Health’s Ava’s House, an acute-level, inpatient hospice facility in Sioux Falls, that provides 24-hour nursing care to patients. When Marvin was asked if he had anything he wanted to see or to do before his health would not permit it, he admitted ... that he would like to see the farm and crops and get another chance to take a tour of Parker, a town of about 1,200, a half-hour southwest of Sioux Falls. ... The staff at Ava’s House quickly began finding a way to make it happen. With financial assistance from the Sanford Health Foundation, they were able to rent a wheelchair van that the Millers could use to make the trip. ... The Millers are grateful the Ava’s House staff made the effort to help Marvin at a difficult time. Just as farming goes outside the scope of a normal job, so does caring for people at Ava’s House. “We’re very appreciative of the staff at Ava’s House,” Paula said. “They’re wonderful people. They set it up and organized the whole trip for us. We got to share a day at the farm with our kids.”

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