Board Member Spotlight: Charlie Smith

Charlie Smith’s day job as Frederick County State's Attorney often involves helping victims of crime get justice for the loss of their loved ones. As such, he is no stranger to death. It wasn’t really until his own father, J. Charles Smith, Jr., a proud World War II Marine, entered hospice care that Charlie realized that he could use that experience and his commitment to community service to help others by serving as a member of the Frederick Health Hospice board of directors. “I’ll admit that before our experience with Hospice, I had a lot of misconceptions about it,” he said. “I wondered if it was right for Dad, if it was too soon for him to enter hospice, if it was too expensive, etc. But when we talked to the Veterans Administration, they helped us overcome a lot of those misconceptions and told us that Dad was eligible for hospice care and that it would be covered.”

In the ensuing weeks, Charlie began to truly appreciate what hospice offers the patient—and their loved ones. “The breadth of services provided by Hospice is just amazing. Aside from the medical care they give, they offered my dad faith-based support, music therapy and they helped my mom. I found myself thinking, ‘What don’t they provide?’”

But it was Hospice’s veterans services that touched the Smith family the most. “They came to the house and presented Dad with pictures and awards in honor of his service,” Charlie recalled. "He was just beaming.” Charlie now wants to use his leadership skills and personal experience to help educate the community about hospice. “One of the first things I did when I joined the board was volunteer to chair the community outreach committee,” he said. “Obviously, I did not truly understand what hospice offers prior to my experience, but it was a wonderful experience. I want to help spread the word to the community that they should investigate hospice sooner rather than later.”