When President Joe Biden comes by for a private visit to Mayo Hospice on Friday, he will see that the founders were so good at their word.
A plaque at the entrance bears his late son’s name: Beau.
It represents the President’s previous visit when he “turned the grass” in a groundbreaking ceremony in 2017, as well as the family ties that keep bringing him back to this western corner of Ireland.
“We told President Biden that Beau’s name would forever be associated with this hospice, and it is. And that’s the reason for the plaque on the front door,” said Martina Jennings, general manager of the Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation.
“Both President Biden’s name and Beau Biden’s and it’s because they’ve used hospice services and they know those and he was passionate about Mayo having his own hospice. His passion matched ours.’
Martina Jennings, chief executive of Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation, at the plaque placed in memory of Beau Biden and commemorating Joe Biden’s 2017 visit to “turn the turf”
Biden visited in 2017 through a personal connection with fundraisers for a hospice in Mayo, and has since kept abreast of progress
The White House kept the details secret until Thursday night. Biden is scheduled to stop by between visits to Knock Shrine – a place of Irish pilgrimage – and a family history center.
Before the hospice opened in 2019, patients had to drive more than three hours to Galway city or even Dublin. It meant patients had to end their lives in six-bed wards far from home.
“We just didn’t think that was dignified or respectful,” Jennings said.
The connection to Biden came about through the fundraising efforts of Laurita Blewitt, a well-known podcaster who also happens to be the second cousin of the president.
She had met him during his 2016 visit as vice president.
“And she asked him to come back the following year to turn hospice and be our patron and our friend, I really think,” Jennings said.
He came back in 2017 and used a shovel to dig the first ceremonial sod of what would become a $10 million facility with 14 hospital rooms (with stunning views of the Irish landscape), as well as suites for outpatients. therapy.
Biden laid the first sod on a ceremonial groundbreak for the new hospice in 2017
Biden received a Mayo Gaelic soccer jersey from Jennings (right) and the president’s third cousin, Laurita Blewitt, his third cousin, who still lives in the town of his ancestors
Jennings said Biden spoke touchingly during his visit to the hospice care his son Beau (pictured here in 2009) experienced before dying of brain cancer in 2015 at age 46
More important than the spade, Jennings said, was Biden’s personal account of the hospice care that helped his son Beau, who died of a brain tumor just two years earlier at age 46.
“It was the most emotional day,” she said. “He was very casual and informal.
“His words on the day really reflected what we feel.
“So he’s on hospice… You know his family has been through hospice.
“And I think what really struck me was that even though they had family support and they got all the support they needed in hospice, he really felt for the people who didn’t have that support.”
He kept in touch with progress and sent a video message when the new building opened.
Now he has the chance to see the place for himself.
A plaque marking Biden’s first visit and immortalizing his son Buau’s name takes pride of place at the entrance to the Hospice in Co. mayo
Funded entirely by donations, the $10 million facility opened in 2019. It has 14 inpatient rooms, as well as suites for outpatient services
Jennings said tensions were rising ahead of the president’s visit to the area on Friday. But during an interview last week, she said she didn’t know if Biden would have time to see the hospice
“There’s so much excitement,” Jennings said days before the visit was confirmed.
“We will be so proud when he comes to see it because we promised him we would provide a sanctuary, not just a building.
And when you walk through the door, you feel that this is definitely a sanctuary of love and respect and compassion and caring. All those words.
“We want him to see that we kept our promise.”
Friday brings Biden west to Co. Mayo, on the last day of his journey to the land of his ancestors.
His last public appearance in Ireland will be a speech outside St Muredach’s Cathedral in the town of Ballina.
About 20,000 people are expected for the president’s largest public event of the trip.
And it all takes place outside a cathedral built with 27,000 bricks that were sold by Edward Blewitt, Biden’s great-great-grandfather, before he left Ireland for the US.
The remains of Blewitt’s house can still be seen in the backyard of an art gallery.
Ballina prepares to welcome Biden to town on the last day of his tour of Ireland
Some 20,000 people are expected to deliver a speech in front of St. Muredach’s Cathedral on Friday evening. From there, Biden will return to Dublin and then back to the US
And Ballina is still home to the president’s third (like Laurita Blewitt), fourth and fifth cousins… and distant relatives.
Dara Calleary, who grew up in the town and is now a minister, said those living ties made the visit – his third – all the more special.
“What he’s done for our hospice has really won hearts,” he said. “So this isn’t just anyone coming for a photo opportunity.
“He came, he lent his name to the fundraiser. He lent his story and his life story to that.
“And so I think people feel like they know him as they wouldn’t know any other American president.”