BERLIN – A generous donation from a local woman has moved Coastal Hospice closer to its goal of opening a new facility in Berlin.
When Salisbury resident Elinor Adkins Fields died in 2014, she included a contribution in her will to Coastal Hospice at the Ocean. That gift has enabled the momentum of the organization’s capital campaign to continue.
“We are honored by Mrs. Fields’ generosity,” said Alane Capen, Coastal Hospice president. “I wish I could thank her in person.”
To honor Fields’ generosity, a room at Coastal Hospice at the Ocean will be named for her. Typically a gift of $50,000 results in the naming of a patient room.
Coastal Hospice has spent the past several years running a $5 million capital campaign to build a new facility. The project, known as Coastal Hospice at the Ocean, would serve as a hospice residence and outreach center in Worcester County. It will provide a home for hospice patients and will also include space for palliative care and counseling. Coastal Hospice, which serves people in Wicomico, Worcester, Dorchester and Somerset counties, currently helps care for patients in their homes or at Coastal Hospice at the Lake in Salisbury.
Both Fields and her late husband, Cleveland Fields, were patients of Coastal Hospice when they died. When her husband passed away 25 years ago, Fields, who had spent more than three decades working as a beautician, lived alone. As she aged and began to become frail, neighbor Colin McAllister promised he’d help find a way for her to stay in her home.
“Because of Coastal Hospice we were able to do that,” he said.
McAllister recalled Fields, who died in October 2014 at the age of 96, as a “classic Eastern Shore woman” who was fiercely independent and loved cooking, crafts and dogs.
Capen praised Fields’ generosity, which has helped bring Coastal Hospice closer to its fundraising goal. The organization now has $3.5 million of the $5 million needed.
“By including Coastal Hospice in her estate, she will be helping us care for people who don’t have the kind of support she received from Mr. McAllister,” Capen said. “When we complete construction of Coastal Hospice at the Ocean, patients will receive medical, emotional and spiritual support in a room that bears her name.”