What the people at St Ann’s say: Christine

When I first heard of the plans to change the name of St Ann’s Hospice to Moya Cole Hospice, I was overwhelmed with emotion.

My connection to the hospice in Heald Green runs deep; my husband Stephen died here a few years ago, and now I volunteer at the hospice every week.

I was informed about the change in a meeting for staff and volunteers.

After the meeting, in a more informal setting, I expressed my feelings of unhappiness. I had a long chat with a member of the St Ann’s team about the need for the hospice to have a more inclusive name, but I had never felt the religious connotations behind St Ann’s, so the change didn’t seem necessary to me.

I went home and had a discussion with my daughter, and she said that these things happen and the hospice have their reasons. I felt that I was too emotionally tied to the name.

I just felt that no matter what, I will always see the hospice as St Ann’s.

As time went on, I was speaking to different people and was in different meetings, and I began thinking that the reason I volunteer for St Ann’s is because it’s my way of paying the hospice back for what they did for us as a family. The name is changing but the people are the same.

It’s been a process, and it’s actually allowed me to revisit my grief around Steve – which is actually a good thing, even though you never really want to revisit it.

At its core, this hospice will be the same, and the amazing new facility under its new name will make such a difference to families such as mine.

I think for a lot of people it will be a difficult process, coming to terms with the name change, and I think for some people they will always see it as St Ann’s, but eventually, I believe we will all come to terms with it.