Murnau instead of New York | Weilheim

Region – once more New York! That would actually be his greatest wish. But Stefan T. is seriously ill and knows that a trip there is never possible for him. But there is another, a modest wish: to eat ice cream with his wife in the Murnau pedestrian zone. They always enjoyed sitting there, back when he was still doing well. The fact that he was able to experience that again is thanks to the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB) and the Hospizverein im Pfaffenwinkel, which has been accompanying the 62-year-old on an outpatient basis for several months.

Coordinator Dagmar Hees from the hospice association had found out about T.’s wishes and she knew that the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund operates the wish-wagon, which is financed exclusively through donations. This means that seriously ill people are fulfilled with trips to places of longing, whereby the trip is free of charge for the patient and an accompanying person. The hospice association made contact and the ASB made it possible for the T. couple to go on a trip to Murnau.

“The wish-wagon. Last wishes “is written on the specially equipped, white ambulance with the blue and red stripes and the ASB logo, which is parked in the morning in the driveway to the T. family’s house. This time the wishing-wagon Allgäu / Swabia has come from Kaufbeuren to T’s place of residence in the Weilheim-Schongau district. The driver is Edgar Schlichtherle, and he is accompanied on this mission by Claudia Lerchenmüller and her daughter Claudia. They are called “wish fulfillers”, like all their colleagues, they come from the medical-nursing field or from the rescue service. They are specially trained and do all missions on a voluntary basis.

Schlichtherle carefully pushes Stefan T. out of the house in a wheelchair, transfers him to another bed, covers him with a blue blanket with white stars and pushes the cot into the wish-list wagon. The wife takes a seat next to her husband, holds his hand, and off we go to Murnau, where T. is reburied and pushed to the ice cream parlor in a wheelchair.

Together with the three wish-fulfillers, the couple spends a few relaxing hours in the Murnau pedestrian zone, which the wife continues to talk about the next day. There was a lot of laughing and chatting, talking about the past and about missions. And it was photographed with the cell phone. The ASB team was great, open-minded and loving, and the trip was so good for her husband. But in the early afternoon the patient’s strength was exhausted and he wanted to go home again.

But there was still a surprise waiting for the couple: Ms. T. received a rose from the team, her husband a small album with pictures of the day. The extensive equipment of the wish-wagon also includes a printer with which the mobile phone pictures can be printed out and put together as a special memory.

It was the first time that the hospice association in the Pfaffenwinkel cooperated with the ASB wish-wagon. The coordinators’ team was also impressed by the fact that everything ran so professionally and smoothly. Hees is now hoping for further cooperation. “It would be nice if we could continue to fulfill one or the other last wish in this way in the future.”