HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Laughter echoes by means of the kitchen as two mates take turns getting ready lunch, injecting a number of playful jokes into an already spirited dialog.
On this explicit day, meatloaf is on the menu together with wholesome helpings of sides, together with mashed potatoes and squash with candy onion.
As one rapidly learns from watching them, volunteers Neil and Sonny make meals that come extremely anticipated.
“We submit our photos on Fb each Monday, and say, ‘This is what we’re serving in Omega Home at the moment for the workers and sufferers.’ We have got lots of people who stay up for it, and we get extra volunteers,” Sonny explains.
Sonny and Neil, and maybe the laughter they bring about, are all a part of the important thing components that make up Omega Home, a mainstay in Montrose full with a front room and backyard that you just won’t instantly notice is a hospice.
I’ll deal with them as in the event that they had been my very own.
Eleanor Munger, founding father of Omega Home, in 1986
“The surroundings, it is like dwelling, and I’ve by no means seen that earlier than,” one other volunteer, Ramona Fridel, informed ABC13.
However making it really feel like dwelling means it is functioning simply as founder Eleanor Munger meant it.
“She was a retired Montessori faculty trainer, so she had no medical background by any means. She was 74 years previous, and she or he simply felt like this was one thing that individuals want – a very loving, caring surroundings,” stated Omega Home director Sandy Stacy.
Munger’s inspiration got here in the course of the HIV/AIDS epidemic within the 80s as she visited hospitals and HIV sufferers who as soon as lived vibrant lives as designers, decorators, ballet dancers, and enterprise homeowners, however after they turned sick, discovered themselves ostracized not solely by hospital workers and society, however their very own households.
“It is the concern that no person knew the way it was transmitted, so the (hospital) workers, that they had them in isolation,” Stacy defined. “(Employees) masked. That they had disposable dishes. That additionally led to a whole lot of the households that did not need to are available in direct contact with them as a result of they did not know if it was informal contact.”
“They (the sufferers) had missed the contact that that they had misplaced in hospitals,” Stacy recalled. “And the sufferers seen that. They seen they weren’t being touched.”
Schooling about HIV has since come a great distance, as researchers have realized the virus might be sexually transmitted by means of bodily fluids in addition to by means of blood or breastmilk.
Nevertheless, you possibly can’t get the virus by shaking arms or hugging an individual who has HIV. You additionally can not get HIV from contact with objects reminiscent of dishes, bathroom seats, or doorknobs utilized by an individual with HIV, in response to a federal authorities web site.
The virus is not unfold by means of the air or water, neither is it unfold by mosquitoes, ticks, or different bugs.
We do not need to be seen as a analysis, whether or not it is diabetes, most cancers, or HIV.
Dr. Charlene Flash, President and CEO of Avenue 360 Well being and Wellness
As soon as Munger noticed the necessity, she turned to her church for assist. As Stacy explains, a deacon gave Munger a $10,000 examine she was in a position to make use of to buy a home on Branard Avenue in Montrose.
She recruited a fellow church member, Dr. Robert Awe, to function medical director and information.
“She simply had such a relaxing, quiet nature to take a seat with any person on the finish of life,” Stacy stated.
ABC13 was there in 1986 as Munger shared her mission in her personal phrases throughout an open home in August of that 12 months.
“I’ll deal with them as in the event that they had been my very own, and I’ll act out my love for them in nursing care, counseling if they need it,” Munger informed then – ABC13 reporter Leslie Brinkley.
Omega Home’s opening made Houston one of many few cities within the U.S. with this kind of pioneering hospice look after AIDS sufferers.
The Texas State Historic Affiliation notes that the hospice finally acquired License No. 1 from the state of Texas as a particular care facility with hospice designation. That made it the primary such licensed residential hospice facility within the state, TSHA stated.
The 12 months 1986 was additionally vital as a result of that was when the Worldwide Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses introduced the virus that causes AIDs would formally be often called Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV.
“What you study when you take care of folks residing with HIV is that it is greater than the illness. It is in regards to the particular person,” stated Dr. Charlene Flash, President and CEO of Avenue 360 Well being and Wellness. “All of us need to be centered. We do not need to be seen as a analysis, whether or not it is diabetes, most cancers, or HIV.”
Dr. Flash, an HIV doctor educated in medication and pediatrics, knew since she was a bit of woman that she wished to finish HIV.
By means of her work, Dr. Flash led the way in which on HIV prevention, growing one of many first packages within the nation – exterior of a scientific trial – to prescribe pre-exposure pro-phylaxis or PrEP to folks with out HIV who’re at excessive threat for the virus.
“The virus would not know if you happen to’re Black otherwise you’re white otherwise you’re Spanish. It would not know in case you are homosexual or you’re straight. The virus is a virus. And so each particular person might be in danger for HIV,” Dr. Flash stated.
Latest knowledge gives an image of what that threat appears to be like like.
A report from Harris County Public Well being launched in April 2025 discovered that between 2016 and 2022, charges of individuals residing with HIV and new diagnoses of HIV had been increased in Harris County than in Texas.
The 25 to 34-year-old age group had the very best charges for brand spanking new circumstances. Black and multiracial communities, the examine says, expertise the very best charges of HIV circumstances within the county.
That is why specialists say testing and prevention are so vital. You’ll find details about free testing and screenings right here.
We’re filling a spot. We do not choose them right here.
Sandy Stacy, Director, Omega Home
Stacy felt referred to as to work with HIV sufferers as effectively, telling ABC13 she knew how restricted sources had been for them, so at age 40, she went to highschool to turn into a nurse.
“I wished to do extra,” she stated.
Stacy was named director of Omega Home Hospice in 1998.
The hospice, Stacy says, first primarily served the LGBT neighborhood, but it surely has since grown to turn into a refuge for many who have typically fallen by means of the cracks or been ostracized by society, from the homeless and lately incarcerated to these experiencing psychological well being points and substance use problems.
“It is a mixture of folks that will by no means sit on the desk collectively, and at the moment at lunch, they are going to be,” Stacy stated. “In order that’s additionally one thing sort of rewarding to see.”
An instance of that humanity got here when a transgender girl moved to Omega Home after Stacy says she was being pushed out of a hospital.
“The nurses, myself, would sit in there along with her, simply reassure her, put gloss on her lips, simply issues that you’d do for anyone,” Stacy stated. “I felt like she did not need to faux with us. We referred to as her her feminine identify, which the hospital was not. And so, we’re filling a spot. We do not choose them right here.”
That willingness to look after these usually ignored can be why Dr. Flash has described Omega Home as “the emerald of the neighborhood.”
“Omega Home is an area of hope for many who really feel like all hope is misplaced. Omega Home is an area of look after individuals who felt like there was no alternative to be cared for,” Dr. Flash stated.
The eight-room hospice presents 24-hour nursing in addition to pet remedy. It has served greater than 1,700 folks up to now, and a big a part of that is because of volunteers.
Based on the hospice, volunteers logged 5,000 hours simply final 12 months.
Stacy says the distinction Omega Home makes is apparent.
“I’ve had mother and father or household say, ‘I used to be nervous he’d be discovered useless on the road, and I are available in right here, and he is on this stunning room, and he’s clear, and y’all shaved him. It is like I by no means thought I’d see that once more,'” she stated, including that everybody within the hospice helps one another as there are losses virtually weekly.
“It makes me really feel that I am an enormous a part of one thing that is taking place on the earth, the place individuals are snug and they aren’t scared to be in a spot like this,” Fridel stated. “Particularly of their final days, it is essential that you do not need to die alone. And these folks are available in, and so they make an enormous distinction to them that they are not going to be afraid to die alone.”
“That is how I really feel that I make that distinction to that particular person, that they aren’t afraid,” Fridel continued.
And as Munger informed ABC13 in 1986, she wasn’t afraid both.
“I’ve confronted dying myself, and I am snug with it. That is simpler for somebody as previous as I’m than it’s for the youthful folks, and I feel I can share a bit of of that even when it isn’t put into phrases,” Munger stated.
Omega Home will have a good time 40 years of service in 2026.
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