{"id":67242,"date":"2022-12-09T14:49:21","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T21:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=67242"},"modified":"2023-02-03T13:53:11","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T20:53:11","slug":"patient-wish-granted-help-from-uchealth-volunteer-patient-navigator-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/patient-wish-granted-help-from-uchealth-volunteer-patient-navigator-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Trip home to Mississippi fulfills longtime wish of 96-year-old patient"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
\"Hattie
Hattie Smith, 96, holds a photo of her parents. Behind her, over the fireplace, is a flag that honors her husband’s military service. Thanks to help from her health care team, family and others, Hattie was able to visit her parents’ graves in a Mississippi cotton field one last time. Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nearly 80 years after Hattie Smith left Mississippi behind as a young bride, she returned one last time to find the small cemetery where her parents were buried, surrounded by cotton fields like the ones she harvested long ago as the daughter of sharecroppers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hated to leave them,\u201d Hattie, 96, said of her final farewell to her parents\u2019 graves in her hometown of Tchula.<\/p>\n

\"Hattie
Hattie Smith’s family members helped her walk into a Mississippi cotton field so she could visit her parents’ graves for the last time. Photos courtesy of Hattie Smith and family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI was not ready to go, and seeing their graves made me sad. But after a while, I got happy again. I told them, \u2018This is my last trip. I won\u2019t be back anymore.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

In early October, Hattie and her niece, Janice Turner, boarded a plane for Jackson, Miss. on a three-day, all-expense paid trip funded by AARP’s Wish of a Lifetime<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hattie\u2019s yearning was elicited by her longtime UCHealth geriatric nurse practitioner Maria Vejar<\/a>,\u00a0who posed a single, simple question to her patient last June: \u201cIf you had a wish, what would it be?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hattie replied: \u201cTo visit my parents’ grave one last time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vejar recommended Hattie for Wish of a Lifetime, which she had learned about through the University of Colorado Anschutz Multidisciplinary Center on Aging. Vejar then turned to dedicated staffers with the UCHealth Volunteer Patient Navigator Program who worked for several months to formally nominate Hattie and make her dream a reality.<\/p>\n

Small town, big dreams<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"A
A sign for Tchula, Mississippi. Photo courtesy of Hattie Smith and family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hattie\u2019s journey from Mississippi to Colorado had many zigs and zags since she was born in 1926, one of 10 siblings raised on a plantation outside Tchula, about an hour south of Jackson. It\u2019s a rural farm town of fewer than 2,000 residents, fertile land that grew cotton for centuries harvested by slaves and then Black sharecroppers who were denied the right to own the land they farmed. The area\u2019s Black residents have had to struggle for many generations against the racist legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.<\/p>\n

Hattie recalls working in the plantation fields: the long hot days and how she quickly learned to separate the central fluffy cotton bud from the sharp thorns of the plant itself.<\/p>\n

Her parents, Lee and Parrena, along with their children, sharecropped the land for white farm owners, mainly picking cotton along with some corn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked it alright because I didn\u2019t know anything else; I didn\u2019t know anything different,\u201d she said from the Denver home where she lives independently, surrounded by scores of family photos, mementos and memories of a full life, well lived.<\/p>\n

\"Hattie
Hattie Smith and family members honor her parents who were buried in a cotton field similar to the ones they sharecropped long ago. Hattie, now 96, also had to pick cotton as a girl. Photo courtesy of Hattie Smith and family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Things changed when Hattie was 15 and her parents left the plantation and moved to Tchula, where they bought a house and rented out the one next door to a couple who, unbeknownst to Hattie, would become her in-laws several years later.<\/p>\n

As luck would have it, the couple\u2019s son, a handsome WWII Army veteran named Johnnie Smith, came home after the war to visit. He and Hattie were smitten from the get-go and 10 weeks later they were married \u2013 a union that would last nearly 50 years until his death in 1994.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was such a nice person, I couldn\u2019t let him go,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Hattie
Hattie Smith with her late husband, Johnnie. Photo courtesy of Hattie Smith.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pushing to make Denver better for all<\/strong><\/h2>\n

After they were married, Johnnie headed back to post-war Germany and Hattie left Mississippi to stay with relatives in Chicago. As Johnnie was a career military man, she experienced several moves during the early years of their marriage: California, and then time in Denver while he was stationed at Denver\u2019s Fitzsimons Army Base, (now the site of Fitzsimons Life Sciences District and the Anschutz Medical Campus). He was one of the first groups of Black soldiers to be barracked there, and their oldest son, Doyce, became the first Black child to be born at the former Fitzsimons Army Hospital.<\/p>\n

They settled in Denver for a while and two more boys, Delbert and Kelvin came along. Hattie and the boys temporarily moved to Chicago when Johnnie was sent to Japan and then they joined him \u2013 which meant a 30-day overseas trip during which Hattie had to corral her little ones on the ship\u2019s deck. But she was game and enjoyed the adventure, as she fondly remembered their stint overseas was the first and only time she had a housekeeper.<\/p>\n

But when Johnnie came down with tuberculous in 1954, the family left Japan as he was sent back to Fitzsimons for extensive lung treatments that lasted a year. Hattie set out to make Denver a permanent home for their family, though those early days in the city were not easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was rough raising the children during that time by myself while he was in the hospital,\u201d she said. \u201cJohnnie couldn\u2019t really see them much because of his health. But we did our best.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to dealing with TB, the couple pushed back against the city\u2019s discrimination policies. These included \u201credlining,\u201d where racist zoning and home loaning practices prohibited Black families from moving into certain parts of Denver.<\/p>\n

Yet Hattie was not easily dissuaded. It would take a few years, a few moves, and a few houses, until the Smiths reached a neighborhood Hattie was satisfied with, a place she has called home since 1956.<\/p>\n

\"Hattie
Hattie Smith and her husband had to fight housing discrimination in Denver. They eventually were able to buy a home in a neighborhood they loved. Hattie still lives in the Denver house they purchased in 1956. Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Relatives soon found themselves moving to Denver and \u201cAunt Hattie\u201d was the welcoming go-to for babysitting and delicious meals, as she was becoming the matriarch of the family.<\/p>\n

Johnnie served a stint in Korea before leaving the Army after almost 30 years and then going to work and eventually retiring, from General Motors. For Hattie those years included becoming a key member of the community through her church, civic affairs and her sons\u2019 schools.<\/p>\n

She was a big backer of Hiawatha Davis Jr., a former Denver City Council member known for his fight against racism and poverty, and Arie Parks Taylor, a Black state legislator and business leader who broke through many racial barriers.<\/p>\n

Like Hattie.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is very independent,\u201d Janice said. \u201cShe is a homemaker. She is God fearing. She\u2019s very giving. She loves her family more than anything in this world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faith and Facebook<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A woman of strong faith, Hattie can now boast to being the oldest, and longest-serving parishioner of Denver\u2019s Central Baptist Church, founded by African Americans in 1891. She never misses a service.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the Lord — he\u2019s the only one that keeps me going for 96 years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Hattie
A woman of strong faith, Hattie Smith (far left in white) has the honor of being the oldest, and longest-serving parishioner at Denver\u2019s Central Baptist Church, founded by African Americans in 1891. She never misses a service. Photo courtesy of Hattie Smith.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If Hattie can\u2019t get to church, which occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, the church comes to Hattie on Zoom via her ever-present iPad. Hattie has tech skills that people half her age would envy. She plays solitaire, blackjack and sudoku, Facetimes with loved ones and converses frequently with friends on Facebook.<\/p>\n

All 737 of them. With more friend requests coming daily.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I wore out two of these,\u201d she said with a laugh while she navigates her iPad screen. \u201cThe old one took too long to charge, so my granddaughter got me a new one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her granddaughter, Caryl Smith Gilbert, would spend summers with Hattie, where she learned to cook, keep house and \u201cbe a lady.\u201d Later, Caryl would go on to become an all-star high school and college track athlete and a stand-out collegiate track and field coach, helming teams that attained national championships.<\/p>\n

Caryl looks to her grandmother as the role model for her own trailblazing.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s so strong: She\u2019s lost her husband. Her children. Her siblings. I asked her, \u2018How do you do this, how do you go on?\u2019 And she said, \u2018God\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hattie has another grandchild, Mandingo Cooper. He’s a teacher, writer and producer in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

\"Hattie<\/p>\n

Hattie Smith holds a photo of her beloved parents. Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon for UCHealth.<\/p>\n

Back to Mississippi<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The night before her trip, Hattie was so excited that she couldn\u2019t sleep. Her church had hosted a sendoff complete with prayers and blessings; she\u2019d had her hair and nails done at a salon, and Janice \u2014 along with UCHealth staff and volunteer navigators \u2014 worked to ensure she would be safe and healthy on the trip with the portable oxygen concentrator she uses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a whole village,\u201d recalled Kathy Kriner, a volunteer with The Volunteer Patient Navigator Program who filled out Hattie\u2019s application to Wish of a Lifetime and helped shepherd the process to completion.<\/p>\n

\"Hattie
Hattie Smith, with her niece, Janice Turner, on the plane as they flew to Mississippi. Photo courtesy of Janice Turner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Volunteer Patient Navigator Program was created in 2017 to connect UCHealth patients to community resources and eliminate barriers to care. While it went dormant in 2020 because of COVID challenges, it returned in the spring. Since then, hundreds of patients at six different outpatient clinics have been helped.<\/p>\n

\u201cHattie\u2019s wish was particularly heartwarming,\u201d Kriner said. \u201cIt was wonderful helping her do something that was so meaningful to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once Hattie and Janice made their way to Tchula in the rental car, it was as if the entire town showed up to welcome them back.<\/p>\n

\"Hattie
Hattie Smith with her niece, Janice, now back in Denver. Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But before the celebration, a group of loved ones set out to find the cemetery. It took some time driving down long-familiar roads to find the graves of Lee and Parrena Ford, as they had been damaged by farm equipment and weather. Then Hattie spotted them in a small plot of land, circled by harvested cotton fields growing all around.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing,\u201d Janice said. \u201cShe didn\u2019t need her walker or her cane. She felt energized all of a sudden and she stood up and walked over to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a solemn moment as they came together and sang a church hymn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just prayed and kept saying, \u201cThank you Lord, thank you Lord,\u2019\u2019 Hattie said.<\/p>\n

Then it was time to leave and gather with family, friends and neighbors to eat the \u201cfeast\u201d they had prepared for Hattie\u2019s return.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it was time to go, I was all right. I didn\u2019t want to see any more cotton. At first, it makes your hands sore, but after a while, it makes them tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Hattie.<\/p>\n

Returning and closure<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The trip brought a sense of peace to Hattie.<\/p>\n

But that was the past, and this 96-year-old is very much a woman of today. A longtime Broncos fan (she\u2019s been a season ticket holder since 1965), and a Nuggets enthusiast too, she follows both teams closely, as well as the World Wrestling Federation. She cooks her own meals and loves to talk about her wonderful neighbors and relatives, both near and far.<\/p>\n

Those who are fortunate enough to share Hattie\u2019s orbit consider themselves to be the lucky ones.<\/p>\n

\"Maria
Maria Vejar. Photo: UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhen I talk to her, she\u2019s the highlight of my day,\u201d said Vejar the geriatric nurse practitioner who has been seeing Hattie since 2008 at the UCHealth Seniors Clinic – Anschutz Medical Campus. \u201cShe\u2019s just amazing and a special soul. She\u2019s been through a lot, and to wake up each day and see such beauty in life and with a grateful heart\u2026it\u2019s so inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vejar, who checks in on Hattie regularly, had no idea that the question she asked those many months ago would end up leading Hattie to Mississippi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really wasn\u2019t expecting that. That that would be her wish. It was just meant to happen. Everything was meant to happen, and I\u2019m so happy it happened to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though she\u2019s lost many people in her life: her siblings, her husband, her three sons, Hattie pushes on. Aside from some minor health issues, she is spry and her mind is sharp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep myself busy. I\u2019m happy to be living this life. It\u2019s a blessing. I just ask the Lord to help me. That\u2019s the only way you can get through this life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly 80 years after Hattie Smith left Mississippi behind as a young bride, she returned one last time to find the small cemetery where her parents were buried, surrounded by cotton fields like the ones she harvested long ago as the daughter of sharecroppers. \u201cI hated to leave them,\u201d Hattie, 96, said of her final […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2357,"featured_media":67254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[351,171],"class_list":["post-67242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-primary-care","tag-volunteer-services"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA 96-year-old's wish granted with help from UCHealth's Volunteer Patient Navigator Program - UCHealth Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A 96-year-old wanted to visit her parents' graves in Mississippi one last time. 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