Joy Query has always been interested in issues of health and welfare. A medical sociologist by training, she spent her career teaching at both North Dakota State University and the medical school at the University of North Dakota. Among her other distinguished accomplishments, Joy is also one of the founders of Hospice of the Red River Valley.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was a new interest in how society treated death. “Suddenly, people became aware of the needs of the dying,” recalls Joy. “Talking about dying and death, when I was young, was unacceptable. This had bad ramifications for the care of those who were dying.”

During this time, Cicely Saunders, a practicing internist in a London hospital, also became concerned with the care of people who were dying. She noticed dying patients shuffled to the back of wards. “The physicians thought there was nothing to do,” Joy explains, “so they kept them comfortable—but not too comfortable—because people were very frightened of pain medications and the potential for addiction.”

In 1967, Dr. Saunders established a hospital called St. Christopher’s, named for the patron saint of travel. She believed people were on a life-long journey, of which dying was one part, and that this part of the journey should be positive. She put forth the radical proposition that one should live until one dies by establishing this place for the dying—the first modern-day hospice.

In the 1970s, Joy spent a week visiting St. Christopher’s. “One of the wonderful parts I noticed was that people who were dying—those who had given up on life and were doing nothing—suddenly developed interests,” she reflects. “I remember several cases. I met an Irish man whose mother had died. He had been too ill to make it to Ireland for his mother’s funeral, and no one had particularly encouraged him. While living at St. Christopher’s, he wanted to go see her grave, so he did.”

“There was also an elderly gentleman who suddenly had the idea that he would like to spend a weekend in Paris. So, guess what? He went to Paris for a long weekend and had a wonderful time. He told me it was the best weekend of his life,” Joy remembers. “This was a dying man; his experiences were completely different from what one might expect. Many of these patients fulfilled their desires. This is what Cicely Saunders wanted, for people to live until they died.”

Cicely Saunders also believed medicine had to be palliative. She did not feel it was necessary for patients to be in pain between dosages. As Joy explains, “She came up with the ‘outlandish’ idea that people should take medicine when they wanted. Interestingly, patients actually took less medicine once they were in control.”

Following her visit to St. Christopher’s, Joy returned to Fargo—back to her husband, three children and very busy career. She was teaching a course on the sociology of medicine, which included a component on death and the hospice movement. At the time, there were few hospices in the country.

Edie Herbst, an adult student of Joy’s, came to her office after class one day. “Edie shared that she had a friend who was hospitalized and dying of cancer,” recalls Joy. “She was very distressed with her care, particularly with the fact that she didn’t get much interaction. Visiting hours were limited, and her medication was limited. She was lonely, miserable and in pain. We both said ‘wouldn’t it be nice if we had a hospice here.’ Then, ‘wouldn’t it be nice’ changed to ‘let’s do it!’”

In addition to Joy and Edie, others in the community were interested in the idea, including representatives from every hospital in town. Gaining support was a slow process, and the group worked tirelessly for several years before the concept got off the ground.

“At first, no one knew what a hospice was,” says Joy. “Edie and I began going to PTA meetings, social meeting, political meetings—you name it—to talk about hospice. The Strauss brothers gave us our first donation to make brochures.”

The movement met with some resistance. “There were people within health care who felt that hospice would diminish the role of the physician in health care,” Joy explains. “This proved not true.”

Slowly, but surely, the group created a groundswell—enough people who knew about hospice who would support it. Very slowly, they gathered enough money to start a hospice. Lutheran Social Services offered use of rent-free office space, and they collected enough money to pay a nurse.

“I remember the excitement when we had our first hospice patient, which sounds odd,” Joy remembers. “We weren’t thrilled a person was dying—we were thrilled we could help.”

Hospice of the Red River Valley served its first patient in 1981. It was among the first hospices in the United States, and the first to be Medicare-certified west of the Mississippi river.

What Joy, Edie, and the other founding leaders of Hospice of the Red River Valley originally hoped would serve a small radius surrounding Fargo and Moorhead today covers 29 counties up and down the Red River Valley.

While reflecting on 30 years of hospice care in the region, Joy explains it best, “We had a dream, and our dream was more than realized.”