Omaha Woman Honors Late Husband With Surprise for Methodist Hospital Health Care Workers

One Omaha woman’s call for donations on Facebook last month led to a generous and heartfelt thank you for health care workers at Methodist Hospital on Christmas Eve.

Teresa Grant’s husband, Tim, died in the Methodist Hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on Oct. 4, 2019, after spending nine weeks in the hospital. That Christmas, Teresa gave gifts baskets to the staff who cared for Tim to thank them for their compassionate care and support..

But for Christmas 2020, Teresa was inspired to go bigger. She saw firsthand how hard nurses worked before the COVID-19 pandemic – how exhausting those long shifts caring for critically ill patients could be. She could only imagine how stretched they were now. So she went to Facebook to ask her friends for small donations to help her make more gift baskets.

Through the generosity of friends, family and strangers, Teresa collected an estimated $5,000 worth of goodies – sports drinks, flavored coffee, snacks, self-care products and more. It was enough to fill pallets of goods for all 10 units at Methodist Hospital plus Methodist Estabrook Cancer Center where Tim had received IV infusions. Her Christmas Eve delivery took more than three hours to unload.

Among the next generation of health care workers will be Teresa and Tim’s daughter Chloe. Her father’s care at Methodist reaffirmed her decision to become a nurse, and she’ll graduate from Nebraska Methodist College in April.