Staying Fit
Courtesy Regina Clark
After her father experienced several falls, Regina Clark, 61, realized he needed more care than he was receiving living in her home. That's when her dad’s hospice social worker said that he was eligible to live in a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) nursing home.
Up until that point, Clark’s father, John O’Dowd, had been in and out of long-term care facilities that cost thousands of dollars a month and had lived with her other two siblings. But thanks to his military service and condition, a portion of the bill could be covered for his stay at a veterans home.
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“Vets are very determined. Anybody that’s ever cared for an elderly person knows they want to walk and get up,” she said. “My dad was always mentally with it. But his body was just breaking down.”
Because O’Dowd was an end-of-life patient, he was able to move up the waiting list and eventually a VA nurse knocked on Clark’s door to give her father a full clinical exam. The next day she received a call and was told that he was approved and could move in within a week.
“I was shocked at how quickly they got him in. And he ended up being in the VA nursing home for months before he passed,” she said.
A proud Air Force veteran O’Dowd, who died in June 2019 at 91, was a bombardier-navigator for the Air Force from 1950 to 1956. He completed several missions throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
When he returned to civilian life as a first lieutenant, he often wore an Air Force veteran baseball cap. He later retired after teaching in the New York City public school system for 20 years.
“I attended an Air Force reunion with him once in San Antonio, Texas, and met the men who he flew with,” said Clark. “They were an incredible bunch of pilots and navigators. Some had flown in four wars: World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War and the Gulf Conflict."
John O’Dowd on his 85th birthday with his children, John Jr., Mary Donnellan, Regina Clark.
Courtesy Regina Clark
Sentimental yet difficult moments
Almost every day during his final months of life, Clark would take the half-hour drive to visit her father at the veterans home in Montrose, New York.
She was in the room during the initial exam with Simon Kassabian, M.D., whom she found to be one of the “kindest physicians” she’d ever come across.
“He was wonderful. And my father immediately connected with Dr. Kassabian and really liked him very much,” Clark said.
Some staff members were better than others, but they never neglected his needs, even when he would yell at them for asking him to do things he didn’t want to do.
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