By NICOLE CARTRETTE
Staff Writer

Death is a part of life.

But it is not something patients and their families must go through alone.

Dr. Ray Thigpen has been explaining that to his patients for years, but four years ago, when his father passed away he experienced firsthand the compassion of the Lower Cape Fear Hospice.

“They were there,” said Thigpen, a Columbus County native who grew up in Fair Bluff and practices in Whiteville.

“With the help of hospice and home health we took care of my dad at home. Otherwise it would have been difficult to do that.

“When we went through this with my father that really impacted me the most,” Thigpen explained.

“Society is really excited about life but keeps running away from the fact that death is a part of life,” he said.

“In my profession I sometimes see people who get sick who can’t get well,” said the doctor who opened his practice in 1976. “When there wasn’t anything I could do or anything anyone could do I had to prepare them for that.”

Thigpen says he believes it is important that individuals understand there is a way legally, ethically, morally, and religiously to prepare for the transition from an earth life to a spiritual life.

“It’s not about science –it’s about the art of compassion,” said Thigpen, who as the area medical director spends one weekend a month at the Lower Cape Fear LifeCareCenter in Wilmington and is looking forward to the completion of the Whiteville facility. “It’s a different pace.”

Thigpen said it is then he finds himself helping people make decisions and anticipate things to come. He helps hospice patients find peace – peace in contacting that college roommate they have lost contact with, peace in mended broken relationships, and peace in taking that trip to Montana that they just never had time to plan.

“It makes you smile, it makes you laugh and it makes you cry inside,” Thigpen admits. “Everybody’s got a story,” he said and pointed out in a doctor’s office setting there is unfortunately little time for those stories.

At the hospice center it is different – a difference best illustrated by how Thigpen has spent Father’s Day for the last two years –working at the hospice center.

On his first Father’s Day covering the center he got the urge to do something a little special for the 14 patients at the center that day – all fathers.

He purchased and gave to each one a copy of Tim Russert’s book, “Wisdom of Our Fathers.” Those 14 books have passed through many hands since then.

What is perhaps the most touching to Thigpen is what came back to him on the following Father’s Day – letter after letter from those family members who had lost the father Thigpen had shared the book with the Father’s Day before.

“This is what hospice is about – hope, caring, and compassion,” Thigpen explained.

His appreciation for the nonprofit is shared with thousands of individuals and businesses in the community who have donated their time and financial support to bringing a Hospice House to Whiteville.

An annual Festival of Trees at the N.C. Museum of Forestry is fast becoming a treasured tradition in Columbus County, and one Thigpen is helping to make especially interesting this year.

“I just got this idea one day,” Thigpen said. He saw picture taken on a trip to NewYork with his dad two years before he died. While the 30-foot cedar tree in his back yard is not quite the Rockefeller Center tree, it should make for a pretty spectacular sight.

“We’re going to put 2,600 lights on it to see if we can’t brighten the sky,” said Thigpen, who is sacrificing the tree to a good cause, as he puts it.

He and a few of his close friends are going to cut the tree and move it to the Forestry Museum for the Festival of Trees opening this week.

The mammoth tree will grace the grounds at a slightly shortened 20 feet.

“It’s more than just about fundraising,” he said. “There are a lot of emotions and it’s kind of uplifting.”

The Festival of Tree event fundraisers and various donations have contributed more than $2.2 million toward the construction of a $2.4 million-plus six-bed facility off Warrior Trail in Whiteville.

The house will feature a kitchen, living room, and conference room and house offices for 21 employees who serve clients at their homes in Bladen, Columbus, and Brunswick counties.

“It’s going to be a great addition to Columbus County,” Thigpen said, adding the support of the community is what makes hospice so special. “We don’t send patients away because they can’t pay,” he explained. “That’s why we depend so much on contributions.”

“People ask: ‘Who owns the Lower Cape Fear hospice?’ Thigpen said, “I tell them, we do.”

Headed up by Debra Walters, chairwoman for the festival and capital campaign and member of the LifeCareCenter Board of Directors, Whiteville’s second annual Festival of Trees promises to be an exciting weeklong event filled with stunning trees, fun children’s crafts, beautiful wreaths, tasty baked goods and good entertainment.

“We are on the 25th annual Festival of Trees in Wilmington we are pleased to be relocating that tradition to Whiteville,” said Bob Jones, community events manager with the Lower Cape Fear Hospice.

As for Walters, she has been busy pulling together the festival that opens Thursday, Dec. 6 and runs until Dec. 11 at the N.C. Forestry Museum.

“We’re very excited to have the Festival of Trees again this year,” Walters said. We have had wonderful participation. One hundred percent of the money raised for the gala and festival go to build the Hospice House. Last year we had a very successful event and gala and we are looking forward to another successful event this year. I hope people will not miss out on this wonderful holiday experience.”

Admission to the Festival of Trees, which includes the dessert café, trees, crafts and daily events and entertainment at the museum. is $5.

Tickets are also still available for the black tie optional gala planned for Saturday, Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. in Vineland Station. The gala features silent and live auctions, entertainment by the Street Feet Band, heavy Hors d’oeuvres and lots of fun. Tickets are $100 with all proceeds benefiting the Whiteville Hospice House planned to open in mid-2008.

To purchase or reserve tickets call Walters at 445-3071 by noon Tuesday.