“We always say we get much more than we ever give. We receive so much more.”
When Karen Oleksa was looking for a meaningful way to give back, she also wanted to do something in honor of her father.
“I felt as if I wasn’t doing anything worthwhile,” Karen said.“I wanted to do something in his honor.”
More than 30 years ago, after recently moving to Winchester, Karen found an unexpected opportunity in a church bulletin. An announcement seeking hospice volunteers caught her attention, and she answered the call.
What began as a desire to serve would become one of the most meaningful commitments of her life.
Throughout more than three decades of volunteering, Karen witnessed firsthand the impact hospice care has on patients, families, and the community
Sometimes, a small moment can change the course of a life. Karen Oleksa shares how a church bulletin calling for hospice volunteers “stuck” with her and led to 30 years of service with Blue Ridge Care.
The Simple Power of Showing Up
Patient-family volunteers provide companionship and practical support, offering their time and presence in ways that respond to what each patient and family needs.
Over the years, Karen Oleksa supported patients and families in many of those ways. She picked up medications, helped around the house, ran errands, shared conversations and provided companionship. But the most important thing she offered was her presence.
Karen Oleksa learned that every person needed something different. Some wanted to talk. Some wanted quiet. Some simply wanted another person willing to sit beside them.
“You can tell when somebody needs to talk or wants to talk or wants to be private or quiet. You get to know that feeling.”
Through years of volunteer service, Karen Oleksa discovered that hospice care often isn’t about finding the perfect words. It’s about showing up, listening and meeting people where they are.
“You can tell when somebody needs to talk or wants to talk or wants to be private or quiet. You get to know that feeling.”
Supporting the Whole Family
One lesson stayed with Karen through every patient and every family she served: hospice care is never just about one person.
"I don't think people realize how coordinated it can be with nurses, social workers, the volunteers, any type of need," she says.
Again and again, she watched families receive support they didn't know existed.
"It's not just the person who is ill, who is dying. It's the whole family."
For Karen, one of hospice's greatest strengths has always been its ability to surround families with care, comfort, education, and reassurance during some of life's most difficult moments.
"I was so comfortable that everything that was happening was just perfect for Ron. Which made it perfect for me."
The Full Circle of Care
Years later, Karen experienced hospice from a completely different perspective.
When her husband, Ron, became ill, the organization she had spent decades serving became a source of support for her own family.
“I was so comfortable that everything that was happening was just perfect for Ron. Which made it perfect for me.”
For the first time, Karen experienced hospice not as a volunteer, but as a caregiver and recipient of the same care she had spent years helping provide to others.
The compassion, expertise, and reassurance she had witnessed throughout her volunteer service became deeply personal. “I enjoyed it on this side, as the recipient as well as the giver.”
For Karen, the circle of care had come full circle.
Karen and her husband, Ron, at Blue Ridge Care’s 40th Anniversary Butterfly Ball on May 21, 2022. Years later, the care Karen had supported as a volunteer for decades became deeply personal when Ron received hospice care. Ron passed on September 20, 2025, at Blue Ridge Care Inpatient Unit.
A Remarkable Legacy
As Blue Ridge Care celebrates 45 years of caring for life, Karen’s story reflects something larger than volunteer service.
It reflects decades of compassionate presence. It reflects thousands of visits. It reflects countless conversations.
It reflects more than 30 years of choosing to show up for others.
Karen also takes pride in having witnessed Blue Ridge Care’s growth over the years and the expanding ways it serves the community. “I’m very proud that I got to be involved so early. I am so pleased that I was able to see a large part of that and be part of it.”
For Karen, what began with a church bulletin became something much greater.
A way to serve, a community to belong to, a source of purpose, and a reminder that sometimes the greatest gifts we receive are the ones we set out to give.
"The best part of my life living here was being associated with Hospice."
