We lost a fellow teammate on January 31, 2024 with the death of LPN Sam Jones. Sam was only 23 years young and much beloved at Trinity Elms by his teammates and his residents. It is a sad loss, and the Jones family is wrapped in our prayers.
The large and related issue of hurt all over the LSC family has been heavy on my mind of late; Sam’s death encouraged me to write. LSC continues to grow quickly and now has over 2,500 teammates across the Carolinas. It’s hard to consider, but at that size and growing we will always have deaths and hardships in our family, deaths and hardships in teammates’ families, and teammate difficulties. That doesn’t make those issues worse or better; it just is.
The LSC Way is that we as teammates and LSC as an organization will support each other in every way we can. Thanks to our vision, mission, and values and our now-annual teammate engagement survey, we will continue to nurture that support. LSC leadership and supervisory training encourages us to be better leaders and teammates, to look out for and support each other.
Thanks to our engagement survey, we now have a Teammate Assistance Program to help teammates with financial difficulties. Teammates have donated generously to that, but the need has been greater than our resources. And our new, free nursing scholarship program is helping teammate-students who are struggling to pay for nursing school. LSC allows communities and programs to raise money from fellow teammates to support our teammates in need. The LSC Way is to lift each other up.
Whether in death or hardship, LSC teammates support each other. As big as we are, we will have teammates in crisis daily, and none of us are promised tomorrow. Our LSC Faith value informs our feelings and our response. While one does not have to be Christian to work for or be served by LSC, LSC is a Christian organization. In that tradition, I leave you with words from the Book of Numbers that are soothing for me and that I hope are soothing to the Jones family, to Sam’s Trinity Elms family, and to all who are hurting:
“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”