New comfort care home opening in Chili

CHILI, N.Y. They are loving and comfortable places where the most vulnerable in our community can go to live out their final days. 

Comfort Care homes have been popping up across the region for the last decade and a new one is set to open in the Gates-Chili area. 

Story of Hope, which will be located along Marshall Road in Chili, has been eight years in the making. At any given time, it will host two people who have been told their time on this earth is limited. The hospice patients will receive around-the-clock care from nurses and volunteers. 

Family members can visit, cook and sleep over. They can just be with their loved ones as opposed to having to care for them. 

“You have your time to be the family and enjoy the patient at the end,” says Arlene Nanry, the founder of Story of Hope.

There are already a handful of other comfort care homes in the Rochester region. 

“The attention each person gets is so individualized when they’re in these homes,” explains Nanry. “A lot of times the patients don’t understand why these people are taking such good care of them. The volunteers love doing it. They love that type of care.”

Comfort care homes would likely be the future of hospice care if it weren’t for the enormous financial responsibilities tied to them. 

“It’s completely community-run,” says Nanry. “It is not me or one other person. Everything has to be donated.” 

That’s the way it has to be, regulation-wise, in order for the homes to be what they are. 

Resources are listed below if you’d like to support a comfort care home.

Story of Hope: https://www.storyofhoperochester.com/

Aurora House: https://aurorahousewmc.com/

Webster Comfort Care Home: https://www.webstercomfortcare.org/

Light Hill: https://lighthillhome.org/

Patrick Place: https://patrickplace.org/

Laurel House: https://laurelhousecomfortcare.org/