CODY  — Three years after his wife’s death from brain cancer, mountaineer Kenny Gasch is speaking out in support of a planned hospice house that will provide comfort and assistance to terminally ill patients and their families.

“I never gave hospice a second thought until I had to go through it,” said Kenny, 55, a guide for Jackson Hole Mountain Guides.

Carrie Gasch, Kenny’s wife of nearly 30 years, had been suffering from an aggressive cancer that had moved from her brain into her spine, and doctors told him there was almost no chance that she would recover.

“It’s physically, mentally and emotionally draining,” Kenny said of the painful process of caring for a dying loved one.

Doctors advised him to work with Spirit Mountain Hospice, a nonprofit group that provides in-home assistance to patients living within 50 miles of Cody.

Hospice workers helped provide Carrie, then 51, with supplemental oxygen, a special bed, a walker, a toilet extension and other aids and worked with Kenny to coordinate her medicine and doctor visits.

Bedridden, in severe pain and unable to care for herself in the most basic ways, Carrie needed constant care.

A tireless volunteer for local causes, Carrie was loved by many in her church and the community who helped with her care, Kenny said.

Friends and hospice workers would often spend time with Carrie, allowing Kenny to tend to errands or clear his head with a jog or a workout.

“There’s no way I could have done it without them, and I was probably in a situation that was ideal,” he said. “I had my health, space at home and the resources to care for her. But it was still just grueling.

“I think of the folks out there who are less fortunate that have to

deal with something like this, and it’s devastating.”

Carrie spent her final weeks in a specially equipped room at West Park Hospital that is set up to accommodate families caring for a terminally ill patient, but the single room is not always available, he said.

“So, this whole idea of having a facility where people can go and die with dignity, regardless of who they are, is an awesome concept,” Kenny said.

Spirit Mountain Hospice has raised $2 million toward a goal of $4 million for the construction of an eight-bed hospice house on land along Canyon View Avenue.

Park County commissioners, who had already allocated $375,000 to the hospice capital campaign, voted earlier this month to direct an additional $97,980 in State Loan and Investment Board funds to the project.

“I’ve been with hospice for 15 years, and, in the last five years, we’ve really seen a need for inpatient care,” hospice director Linda Harbron told commissioners.

“Elderly spouses trying to take care of their spouses can be very difficult at the end of life,” she said.

The hospice house will offer 24-hour professional care for patients in a homelike setting. Rooms will be set up to accommodate friends and family members, and the facility will have a kitchen, dining area, meeting rooms, a laundry and a chapel.

“The idea of this is to meet the inpatient demand we have in Cody, Powell and the Bighorn Basin,” she said, adding that patients within 100 miles will be eligible for care, regardless of their ability to pay.

The 10,000-square-foot facility will be built to allow for expansion as needed and designed to offer patients a homelike setting focused on comfort and privacy.

With an average stay of about 30 days, the facility could care for as many as 100 patients annually.

Spirit Mountain Hospice is launching an updated capital campaign to raise additional funds to facilitate construction in 2010, said Graham Jackson, a member of the project’s steering committee.

Since Carrie’s death, a nursing scholarship has been established in her memory at Northwest College, where she was a student and where she served as director of annual giving at the time of her death.

Kenny said he was pleased to see the plans progressing.

“It needs to be brought to people’s attention,” he said. “We’re all going to have to deal with it at some point.”

Contact Ruffin Prevost at rprevost@billingsgazette.com or 307-527-7250.