Workers, patients share in holiday meal at Deaconess Hospital to lift spirits

Mary Cooper did not expect a free meal at Deaconess Hospital during her father’s heart procedure. But the annual tradition provides a small respite for those who find themselves facing hard times at the hospital for the holidays.

“It’s sweet. I guess it keeps your mind off what’s happening upstairs,” Cooper said of her father’s surgery and her meal of roast ham.

The free holiday feast was available Wednesday to all patients, visitors and staff who wandered by the hospital’s cafeteria. Lines in two directions stretched into the hallway at times as they waited for a meal of roast ham, chicken cordon bleu with hollandaise sauce, stuffing and other holiday fare.

Hospital Chaplain Bill Strunk spent the day serving more than 420 pounds of chicken.

“It’s a fun and different way to get to serve people. It’s really a rush of everyone coming down,” he said.

MultiCare Inland Northwest CEO Alex Jackson said the annual tradition is a “very small way” to give back to MultiCare Deaconess employees who have to give time up with their families over the holidays.

“No one chooses when they’ll be ill,” he said. “So we need to be here on Christmas, on Thanksgiving. We want to say thank you in every way we can to all our employees who delay their Christmas until they get off shift,” he said.

While in line for her lunch, ER assistant nurse manager Stacy Kitchens said every nurse she knows has missed a holiday with family because of their job.

“Hospital staff have to sacrifice their own family to care for patients. That’s the job, but it is hard sometimes,” she said.

Kitchens added the most sympathy should go to patients and their loved ones who sometimes must celebrate the holidays under the worst circumstances.

“It can be sad to be in a hospital over Christmas. So I think us as nurses or just anyone who works here tries to bring a little extra joy to our patients over the next few weeks,” she said.

Physician Ben Arthurs echoed the sentiment – being a hospital worker during the holidays is “part of the job.”

“Being tolerant to give up time with families is intrinsic to what we do,” he said. “It’s not as hard as seeing when families cannot be with their loved one for the holidays because they are in intensive care.”

But Arthurs called the annual holiday meal a “moment of connection” for everyone who finds themselves at the hospital near the end of the year.