When Cahaba Hospice owner Barbara Ware died unexpectedly two months ago, some questioned how the facility could continue.

Ware was irreplaceable and Cahaba Hospice had been her dream. So those outside the facility openly wondered how it could go on without her.

Ware’s husband Richard, however, didn’t waver for a second.

“I don’t have a doubt in my mind that this is what Barbara would have wanted me to do,” Richard says as his frame fills the office doorway he’s leaning on. “It just makes me proud to be a part of it. I know what it does for this community.

I know what it does for me I wake up every morning.”

That’s why Cahaba Hospice will go on, even must go on, according to Ware and his staff. The services provided by the self-proclaimed small family-oriented hospice facility are vital not only to the community but to the patients, staff and volunteers as well.

“We’re still in that phase, we grieve her absence. We’ve worked harder,” Director Robin Irwin said. “It’s different, but it’s given us even more zeal for hospice.”

For a facility that works everyday with grief and bereavement, losing their leader put the lessons they teach to the test.

“We’ve been here for eight years.

We’ve been teaching bereavement and grief and helping the dying,” Irwin said. “When it happened to us, it gave us more of a heart for what we are doing.”

Two months after her death, Ware’s presence still rules the facility.

Her office sits untouched in the southwest corner of the building.

Memories pop up even during the mundane duties of everyday life.

“We’ve kept her memory very much alive,” Irwin said. “To be doing what we do, she kept us laughing, kept us upbeat.

She made it easier to do what we do.

When you met her, you loved her.

The way we describe her is bigger than life in everything. You couldn’t come in upset or frowning or sad because she would come change that right away and make you laugh.”

“She still does that,” Cahaba Public Relations Director Mary Susan Crovato said. “Now, we say, ‘Barbara would say…'”

Barbara was a constant presence at the facility. Now the work she and Richard started – in part because of his ailing father – goes on.

“I come here because it’s a comfort zone to me,” Richard said.

“My dad wasn’t able to walk or talk for 15 years. There wasn’t any doubt (Cahaba) would continue.”

With Barbara gone, Cahaba continues to provide family-type care for the grief-stricken and dying. In fact, they’ve just started a bereavement support group that meets the first Thursday of every month.

“In honor and memory of her we’re more determined to keep it here and to keep it running,” Irwin said. “We want to do as much outreach as we can.”

Just like when Barbara was alive, Cahaba continues to provide the care that only a smaller, community-type facility can provide, according to Crovato.

“We know our patients on a personal level,” she said. “We all grew up here, we know everybody.”

They’ve also recently welcomed Dr. Jack Burns to the staff.

“We’re very proud to have him, he has a heart for hospice,” Irwin said.

Finally, Richard Ware and the staff at Cahaba simply want the community to know that they will be there, they will carry on Barbara’s work and they will continue to care for the community.

“We’re going to continue to make her proud,” Richard said. “We’re not going any place.

We’re fine and we look forward to serving the community for 80 years instead of the eight we’ve already been here. Nothing’s changed, other than Barbara’s not with us. We’re going to make her proud.”