SOUTH BEND – The Center for Hospice Care on Thursday, March 31, presented Bernie Randall of Granger with its John E. Krueger Hospice Caring Award. Randall has been a CHC volunteer for 11 years.

            Randall got involved with CHC after he retired from a career in human resources. He spent several hours each week visiting with patients at their home. “I just do whatever the patient wants me to do – I’m totally there for them. I had one patient who loved to play rummy, so we’d play 44 or 45 games of rummy every time I’d go.”

            He also made himself available as a substitute for other volunteers who weren’t able to meet with their patients due to vacation, illness or other commitments.

            The John E. Krueger Award is named for the Michigan City native who received his medical degree from Indiana University and pursued a surgical internship at Eloise General Hospital near Detroit. That was cut short by the war in Europe and when he returned, there were no surgical internships available.

            Krueger temporarily switched to anesthesiology, and then spent 40 years as an anesthesiologist at St. Joseph Hospital in South Bend.

            Center for Hospice Care has offices in South Bend, Plymouth and Elkhart and serves patients in St. Joseph, Marshall, Elkhart, Fulton, Kosciusko, LaGrange, LaPorte and Starke counties.