MAKING A DIFFERENCE I BY ANN WLAZELEK
JUDITH ADELE AGENTIS CHARITABLE FOUNDATION
Contrary to American economist Milton Friedman’s warning, there is a free lunch: It happens every Thursday at St. Luke’s Hospice in Lower Saucon Township.
There, about 30 family members and staff ers gather round a table for pizza, homemade soup or even a gourmet meal from some of the Lehigh Valley’s fi nest restaurants, in- cluding the Apollo Grill and Emeril’s Chop House, both in Bethlehem, and Shula’s Steak House in Center Valley.
Bethlehem real estate agent Bob Agentis delivers the food in memory of his wife and long-time business partner, Judith Adele Agentis, who died at St. Luke’s Hospice on Jan- uary 10, 2013, only about a month after receiving a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Lunch arrives every Thursday because that was the day of the week that Judith died.
“I know what they are going through,” Agentis said of family members who don’t want to leave the side of terminally ill loved ones. “I didn’t eat for six days,” he said. “I didn’t have any desire.”
Agentis also wanted to give back to the nurses, aides and others who helped him and his wife in so many ways.
22 JUNE/JULY 2014
“Those people are angels,” he said. “They are just amazing.”
Staff ers say the appreciation goes both ways. So grateful for his eff orts, they nomi- nated him this year for a statewide “Heart of Hospice” award. Agentis won and re- ceived the honor for volunteer work at a banquet in Hershey in April.
“We just appreciate everything he does for us,” said Judy Putnam, patient care manag- er at St. Luke’s Hospice, a home-like center that works with families to keep the termi- nally ill comfortable and out of pain. When the center surprised Agentis with a cake and balloons to reveal the award, every staff member and more than a dozen rela- tives of hospice patients attended, she said.
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