Millions of people remember the iconic photograph of Princess Diana dancing with John Travolta at the White House during her first visit to Washington with Prince Charles at the invitation of President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan. Fewer people remember what Diana did earlier in the day on Nov. 9, 1985.
Monica Koshuta remembers — Koshuta escorted Diana during a visit to the Washington Home and Hospice, one of the first facilities in the U.S. to establish a dedicated space for hospice care.
When Koshuta joined Washington Home, which at the time was located on Upton Street Northwest, hospice care was relatively new, providing physical and emotional support for patients and their families toward the end of life.
“I wanted to be with people who wanted to live until they die — nobody was ready to talk about dying,” she recalled from her living room couch, during a recent interview in her Fairfax County, Virginia, home.
At the time, dying patients were often relegated to rooms at the end of hospital wings, before the focus on improving lives for patients with terminal illnesses. “We didn’t look at death as the end of life, and letting people live until the end,” Koshuta said.
The Washington Home had 178 beds for assisted living residents, when Koshuta became the hospice administrator.
“We had six beds with Blue Cross/Blue Shield — Medicare wasn’t paying for us,” Koshuta said. “We didn’t have a sign. It was ‘that’s the hospice wing,'” she said, gesturing.
Princess Diana’s visit to DC area’s first hospice facility
“I went into work one morning, and somebody said to me, ‘Hey, there were guys here last night, with dogs. The Secret Service was here for something. What’s going on,'” she recalled.
Now 92, Koshuta vividly remembers learning that Princess Diana would be arriving at the Washington Home, later that day in November.
“She wanted to come visit the hospice,” Koshuta said. “And it was at the point the AIDS epidemic started, and D.C. was number two in the country,” in terms of the number of AIDS cases.
Within hours Princess Diana arrived, stepping out of a limousine.
“I talked with her, and escorted her for six people, and introduced her to them. (Second lady) Barbara Bush was with us,” said Koshuta, who led the tour through the facility.
Koshuta said she was surprised, when, “Princess Diana said to the Secret Service man and Barbara Bush, ‘I don’t think we need you,'” suggesting she wanted some private time with the patients.
“I would tell her the patient that was there, the diagnosis, how much longer they had to live,” said Koshuta. “And then I left them. She had probably 10 or 12 minutes,” with each patient.
She said the princess introduced herself to the patients as “Diana.”
As the visit neared an end, one of the patients dying from AIDS beckoned for Princess Diana to come closer.
“He said ‘It was worth it coming in here, to die, just to meet you,'” Koshuta said.
Since 1983, hospice has been covered by Medicare in the U.S.
Koshuta said hospice allows people to die in relative comfort, surrounded by family, and in control of their final days.
“We’d ask, ‘What is it that you’d like to happen in your life?’ You still have to leave people in control. That’s what hospice is all about,” she said.
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