Your support ensures that BJC Hospice patients receive personalized end-of-life care while spending more meaningful moments with their loved ones. You provide the peace and dignity we all deserve, bringing comfort to families like Tom Strackeljahn’s.
Thomas Strackeljahn lived a full life in his 59 years. He loved his wife, their two children—Shelby and Connor—boating on Table Rock, and sharing stories. When he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he never asked, “Why me?” Instead, Tom said, “Why not me?”
“‘I’ve lived a good life, and I’m at peace with it.” Shelby remembers him saying. When she asked if he had a bucket list, he replied with a smile on his face, “Nope! I have done everything I needed to do.”
When Tom’s cancer was no longer treatable, Shelby’s mother-in-law recommended Evelyn’s House for end-of-life care.
Finding Peace
As soon as Tom arrived at Evelyn’s House, his care team focused on his comfort. They gave him a bath and made him feel at home in his room. 
“The comfort and care for the patient and the family is huge,” Shelby says. “Watching my mom get to be a wife with her husband and not a caregiver during the last days of his life was amazing. Also, my dad was a carpenter and a jokester, so we teased that he would have been so impressed with the crown molding at Evelyn’s House.”
With the stress of caregiving alleviated, the Strackeljahns made the most of their time together. Sometimes, while Tom rested in his room, the family gathered in the hospice house’s thoughtfully curated shared spaces. They ate pizza and played card games. Shelby even brought her dog for a visit.
The family especially appreciated the music therapy. “You could see the wrinkles in his forehead smooth out,” Shelby remembers. “He was just peaceful.”
The Strackeljahn family spent four days together at Evelyn’s House before Tom passed on July 9, 2023.
Finding Hope
During this difficult time, Shelby was supported by the team at Freeburg Family Dental, where she works as a dental hygienist. As the anniversary of her father’s passing approached, Dr. Denise Hand, a dentist and the owner, suggested hosting a fundraiser for Evelyn’s House.
“Shelby was in awe of the care that her dad got at Evelyn’s House,” Dr. Hand says. “She showed us videos and pictures of the place. She talked about the music therapy, how they cared for him, and how they hid all the monitors and turned off all the sounds typically associated with a hospital. She was overwhelmed by how the staff and environment of Evelyn’s House lifted the burden of care from her and her family and allowed them to just be with Tom.”
In November 2024, during Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, The Freeburg Family Dental team held the first Glow with Hope. The event now takes place annually and features food, music, face painting, and other family fun. As the sun sets, they hold glowsticks and stroll along a lantern-lit route through Freeburg Community Park during the Glow Walk.
Shelby says her father would have loved the event because it’s full of good food with great people laughing while telling stories, some of his favorite things in life.
“I love chatting with each person as we’re walking. Everybody is either there for my dad, our office, or Evelyn’s House. Many of my dad’s life-long buddies come.”
Shelby is grateful for the Freeburg Family Dental team’s support of her, her father’s memory, and Evelyn’s House. “I feel honored to work among great women and who empower other women. We truly are there for each other in every stage of life.”
Inspired by the loving care Tom and his family received at Evelyn’s House, Freeburg Family Dental’s Glow with Hope has brought the community together and raised $6,000 the past two years for Evelyn’s House.
“It’s important to me, as a human, that I listen to others,” Dr. Hand says. “I can fix their teeth, but I can’t fix their problems. Sometimes their problems can’t be fixed at all, but I’ve seen what it can do for someone when you truly listen, empathize, and show them that you care.”
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Written by Maren Leonard Libonn