On the morning of Jan. 14, 2021, I found my husband Bill Kelly unconscious on the floor of his bedroom. He had suffered a stroke, fallen and hit his head on the edge of his dresser stand, resulting in a brain concussion.
I called 911, and the EMTs arrived shortly and took him to Beebe Healthcare for evaluation.
Later that day, while I was at work at my hotel job in Lewes three blocks from Beebe, I received a call asking my permission to airlift Bill to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. They told me the flight would be about a half-hour, whereas an ambulance (which was going up with another patient) would take at least two hours and they didn’t think my husband would survive that time.
I gave them permission to airlift Bill to Jefferson in Philadelphia, where Bill spent the next week in the ICU unit. The doctors at Jefferson saved Bill’s life. He was transferred to a rehab facility for the next two weeks in Dover. After his rehab stay, I was able to pick up Bill and return him to his home here in Milton.
For the next three years, I was his full-time caregiver.
I didn’t do this alone. I had the amazing help of Delaware Hospice and the VA home healthcare service. Both Bill and I received world-class healthcare. Words fail me to express the extent of my appreciation that these two organizations provided with such care and love to us, two ordinary guys who retired to Delaware from Pennsylvania. Wealthy, famous and even the president of the United States couldn’t have received better healthcare than we received.
Bill died Feb. 24, 2024, at the Delaware Hospice Center in Milford, almost three years to the day he returned from the rehab facility in Dover.
I want to publicly express my profound thanks to everyone who made it possible for Bill to spend the last three years of his life here at his home, which he so loved, and with me, his partner and husband of the past 59 years. Thank you.
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