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Ginger Young By Lionel Green - The Reporter Published May 18, 2010 Ginger Young said God nudged her into a job with Hospice of Marshall County following her mother’s successful battle with breast cancer. “After her treatments, it changed my brain,” said Young, a registered nurse for the nonprofit agency based in Albertville. “I saw a different way of thinking with people who battle chronic illnesses and terminal illnesses. She was successfully treated, but it taught me how to deal with chronic illnesses and terminal illnesses.”

After the experience, Young said a voice in her mind repeatedly told her to “go there, go there” whenever she passed by Hospice of Marshall County.

“I thought, ‘I don’t want to go there,’” she said. “Needless to say, here I am, and it is the calling of my life. This is just a blessing to work here. It restores your faith in people. It restores your faith in humanity because you see people with real needs, not just the pettiness of life that we deal with every day.”

Young was named Citizen of the Year during the 62nd annual Boaz Area Chamber of Commerce Banquet on April 29. Surprised and humbled, she praised God in her tearful acceptance speech.

Hospice of Marshall County Chief Executive Officer Rhonda Osborne is one of the people who nominated Young.

“She is a lady of high integrity, who ‘walks the talk’ of her faith,” Osborne said.

Young said her Christian faith is vital to her work as a hospice nurse.

“For me, I do know there is that connotation with hospice of sadness,” she said. “But I believe it’s a mission that I’m doing. It’s probably one of the most joyful things I do because you get the opportunity to help someone in a capacity that’s different from just meeting them randomly on the street or in our everyday dealings in life.

“To me, it’s just special to be able to deal with people in that capacity. It’s kind of ordained because God’s grace always goes before me.”

‘Always a surprise’

Young, 35, and her husband Mike have two sons, Blake 11, and Austin, 9. Her parents are Butch and Brenda Brown, of Rainbow City.

A fan of the movie “Forrest Gump” and the music of Casting Crowns, Young graduated from Etowah High School in 1992 and from the nursing program at Wallace State Community College in 1996. She worked stints for Gadsden Regional Medical Center and for Dr. Evan Johnson in Sardis City, but took off about six years to be a stay-at-home mother.

“I feel like I spend half my life at the ball field,” Young said, adding she enjoys showing Tennessee Walking Horses and Alabama football.

Since March 2009, Young’s worked on an as-needed basis for Hospice of Marshall County.

“I come in and pick up random patients,” she said. “Maybe someone has a load too large that day, so I’ll pick up some of their patients. I see different patients in our whole service area. Every day I go, it’s always a surprise and a blessing.”

Young assesses her patients and discusses if they need changes in their medications or level of care, or if they need transfer to Shepherd’s Cove, the agency’s in-patientfacility. 

“When you think hospice, you think cancer. I know I did,” she said. “But we have such a mix from congestive heart failure to coronary artery disease, maybe cancer or a terminal illness like ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).

“Our goal here is to keep people free from pain and make sure they’re spiritually OK.”

Young said she encounters patients with strong and varying faiths.

“In what I do, I would never push my belief on anyone,” she said. “We have many faiths represented in our patients. We are a very spiritual organization ourselves, but we see many different patients with many different beliefs. We have chaplains for all different denominations and religions. We’re open to anything they need.

“Sometimes the people are already very faithful and spiritual people, and sometimes it becomes a reality when they realize there’s a disease process. We’re there either way.

“If they’re just now discovering what God has been trying to tell us, then we’re there. I worship at Mount Vernon, and we’ve had many members or family members of our members taken care of by Hospice. That’s how I became familiar with Shepherd’s Cove. I would come visit some of our members from Mount Vernon.”

‘Face to face’

Young said dealing directly with terminally ill patients is the highlight of her job.

“I do love all of it, but it’s the one on one with those patients and with those families,” she said. “Sitting down with them and talking with them face to face about what their needs are and trying in the best way I can to be a nurse or just be a Christian if they need that, or just a good person. However they need it, my job is to find that answer for them.”

Young said sadness sometimes mixes with the joy, though.

“In nursing, you try not to get too attached personally to a patient,” she said. “But I’ll tell you this is a job of love, and I’ve never not loved any patient I’ve ever gone to see. I develop a love for every one.

“I think the most difficult thing is helping them through that end-of-life transition. If they’re real faithful and real spiritual people, sometimes it’s a joyful thing. Sometimes it’s a sad thing when you deal with a younger person, and there are children involved. It just pulls on your heart. But that’s part of the job.”

In September, part of Young’s job included caring for her grandmother, Gloria Brown. 

“We had my grandmother as a patient with Hospice of Marshall County, so I got the opportunity to be her nurse while she was in our care,” Young said. “She passed away in March, but it was a joy to be able to take care of her.

“She loved for me to come be her nurse. She thought that was very cool.”