Your support ensures that BJC Hospice patients receive personalized end-of-life care while spending more meaningful moments with their loved ones. Your generosity gives comfort and peace to patients and their loved ones, like Shirley and Anita.
Shirley Booth was a humble, secret artist. Her children knew she was musically gifted and fondly remember her singing while playing her guitar, but she kept her drawing skill a secret until she was diagnosed with cancer in 2021.
“To get her mind off of being sick, she would draw,” says Anita Bond, Shirley’s daughter. “I came to find out that she had taken art classes at St. Louis Community College when she was young.”
Shirley drew incredibly detailed pages depicting people living their everyday lives, and she also loved coloring books, especially ones with empty spaces so that she could draw in more details. From adding people and animals to landscapes and buildings, she completed elaborate scenes on each page before coloring. She also bought Anita coloring books, and they colored together when Anita visited Shirley at her home in Springfield, Illinois.
Caring for Shirley
As cancer weakened Shirley’s independence, Anita knew it was time to bring her mother back to St. Louis. In August 2024, Shirley moved and started seeing an oncologist at Siteman Cancer Center. Then, in February 2025 when Shirley’s condition worsened, Anita knew it was time to transition her mother to hospice care.
“My best friend’s mother was diagnosed with cancer before my mom and was on hospice,” Anita says. “Because of the way BJC Hospice took care of her family, I knew BJC would be the only choice for my mother’s care.”
Anita moved in with Shirley, and BJC Hospice provided peace of mind for them both. The hospice team answered questions, handled issues, and provided compassionate care as needed 24 hours a day, while also providing medications and special supplies, like a hospital bed. Shirley and Anita had everything they needed, including the emotional support of art and music therapies.
When Shirley’s pain intensified, she spent a week at Evelyn’s House, BJC’s hospice house, to have her medications adjusted with around the clock supervision and specialized care. 
“It was so beautiful. Just the way that they cared for her — it was about making her comfortable,” Anita says. “It was soothing, not only for her but also for us.”
While at Evelyn’s House, Shirley continued to enjoy art and music therapy. Her music therapist thrilled Shirley each visit by playing “Blueberry Hill,” a song her father often sang to her mother. She said the music therapy “calmed her heart.” After drawing her last sketch in art therapy, Shirley set down her pencil and matter-of-factly stated, “My art is done.”
When Shirley returned home, BJC Hospice continued caring for her. In addition to nurses, a chaplain also visited to provide guidance and emotional support. The chaplain coached and prepared Anita so that she
could remain present for Shirley, despite the immense emotional pain.
Surrounded by love, Shirley passed on March 23, 2025. “She died with dignity, which is all she and everybody else wanted,” Anita says.
Caring for Anita
Anita’s journey with BJC Hospice continued after her mother’s passing. She worked with a BJC grief counselor and joined a support group with others who had recently lost parents.
“BJC Hospice is not just about supporting the patient. They’re supporting the caregivers, family, and loved ones. They let my mom know, ‘Hey, we got Anita when you’re gone.’”
After caring for Shirley in her last days and then helping Anita cope with the loss of her mother, BJC Hospice provided one more comfort: a very special coloring book. Through the
Lumina Life Review program, Anita and Shirley’s loved ones received copies of a coloring book made from the pages that Shirley had meticulously drawn over the
years.
“Hospice means comfort,” Anita says. “It’s not only comfort to your loved one, but it’s comfort to the whole family because BJC Hospice takes care of the whole family — before, during, and after.
It was crucial to have that support."