Seven years ago when Anne Nixon’s husband, David, was dying of terminal cancer, the family became clients of Hospice of Homer. One of the biggest helps hospice provided her was its direct care program. Five days a week for three hours, a volunteer came to their home and gave her respite from the round-the-clock care David needed.

“They gave me relief so I could leave the house and do whatever — do business, spend some time with myself,” Nixon said. “When you’re caring at home for a dying person, you’re on duty 24 hours a day. It gives the major caregiver a getaway.”

Now in its 20th year, Hospice of Homer is finishing up its fall forum series. At 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Homer Senior Center, staff and volunteers present “Hospice Overview.” They’ll talk about hospice programs, the hospice experience and why they volunteer, said Darlene Hilderbrand, director of Hospice of Homer.

Next month, hospice also starts a 22-hour training program for new direct care volunteers.

While its main focus is care for the dying and their families, hospice also has an equipment loan program, information sessions like the fall forum series, grief support groups and events like the annual Remembrance Circle.

It also has a wonderful library on death and dying, Nixon said.

Hilderbrand said unlike hospice programs that offer residential health care, Hospice of Homer is not a medical program. It works with health care professionals to provide medical support such as managing pain. Hospice supports the family emotionally, mentally, practically and spiritually, Hilderbrand said. Its mission is to provide support services to assure comfort, dignity and choice through life-threatening illness.

She emphasized that not just the dying person is the client; the whole family is the client. In addition to the trained direct-care volunteers, volunteers also can help hospice by doing office work, fund-raising, mailings and equipment moving and repair. They also need “chefs of the heart” to cook meals for families and “the green thumb brigade” to maintain the hospice memorial garden at WKFL Park.

“There is a place in hospice for everyone,” Hilderbrand said. “We just need a lot of different volunteers.”

Another program is the monthly Ladies Gathering organized by Nixon. She started the group about two years ago for women who are caring for a loved one or who have suffered a recent loss.

“It’s being able to talk about things your friends don’t want to hear about,” Nixon said. “It’s easier, because they know exactly what you’ve been through.”

Four years after her husband died, Nixon also took the direct care volunteer training.

“It was a chance to give back everything that was given to me by the volunteers who helped me so much,” she said.

Her experience with hospice helped her in the training, Nixon said, but it also required a shift from thinking as a client to thinking as a volunteer.

“It was a little uncomfortable at first,” she said. “Once I made the shift, the training was much easier.”

Hilderbrand said direct care volunteers often remark on how rewarding the experience is for them.

“People who work with hospice always say they get more than they give,” she said. “It’s a real privilege to be involved in such a sacred and important happening in a family’s life.”

For information on Hospice of Homer activities, attend Tuesday’s presentation, visit its offices in the blue building at the corner of Bartlett Street and Soundview Avenue or call 235-6899.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com