Bessie Anderson, 105, of Laguna Niguel is flying high as she fulfills her dream of soaring in the Great Park Balloon. CINDY YAMANAKA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Shortly after her 105th birthday, hospice patient Bessie Anderson prepares to go up for a balloon ride at the Great Park in Irvine. The big orange helium balloon is nearly 74 feet in diameter. On the flight deck, Bessie is tucked into a wheelchair pushed by her granddaughter, Sheryl Villapania, 48, of Murrietta, who uses a wipe board to communicate to her. Though Bessie’s hearing is diminished, she works around this and continues to engage in conversation.

Bessie Anderson, 105, of Laguna Niguel is flying high as she fulfills her dream of soaring in the Great Park Balloon. The Irvine attraction flies 400 ft. high with a 360-degree view spanning up to 40 miles. Dream Catchers, made up of high school volunteers, grant last wishes for hospice patients. Anderson was thrilled with the views on this clear day and was grateful to everyone who made her dream come true.

“Are you scared?” Sheryl writes on the board.

Bessie reads the board then beams and says, “No, I’m excited.”

Sheryl Villapania of Murrieta, from left, wheels her grandma Bessie Anderson, 105, towards her dream ride as Tesoro High junior Emily Beals, 16, Dream Catchers president, gets a hug from Nancy Nicolosi, Hospice Care of the West nurse. Anderson’s wish was to fly on the Great Park Balloon in Irvine. Dream Catchers volunteers grant last wishes for hospice patients. CINDY YAMANAKA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Bessie, of Laguna Nigel, is dressed up for her adventure flight. Her white hair is curled, blush enhances her cheekbones and a pearl necklace punctuates her coral silk blouse. Since the Great Park started free balloon rides in 2007, she has wanted to go up but never quite made it.

When her nurse, Nancy Nicolosi, 52, from Hospice Care of the West, talked of her recent flight, Bessie sat up in bed.

“I want to go for a balloon ride at the Great Park,” she said.

Nancy called on Dream Catchers, a group of high school volunteers who make last wishes come true for hospice patients. Emily Beals, 16, the new president of the organization, answered the call. She is a junior at Tesoro High School and recently took over from the founder of Dream Catchers, Caitlin Crommett, 17, who went off to college and started a chapter at Notre Dame in Indiana.

Since the organization began two years ago, Dream Catchers has granted 22 dying wishes.

Caitlin’s inspiration for making dreams happen for hospice patients came from volunteering since seventh grade for Hospice Care of the West and a scene from the movie “Patch Adams.”  In the movie, the doctor is focused on not just treating the disease but caring for the patients. The spark for Dream Catchers came when the doctor inspires a depressed old woman to eat again by making her dream — of plunging into a pool of spaghetti — a reality.

The Dream Catchers have taken hospice patients for one last sail on the Pacific, a walk with their family down Main Street at Disneyland and out for a special reunion dinner with family and friends, just to name a few. One of their goals is to reunite families for a shared moment when time is running out.

The balloon ride is the 23rd dream and Emily’s first as president of Dream Catchers. She reserved the balloon for Bessie with park operators.

As she arrives at the balloon flight deck, Emily tries to mask her jitters. Though there are four generations between them, Emily is more afraid of riding in the balloon than Bessie is.

“I would never do this on my own. I’m only doing this for Bessie,” she says. “My life is on the line here.”

Emily nervously strolls alongside Bessie, Sheryl and Nancy. The balloon operators strap Bessie in and electronically lift her onto the gondola. Bessie smiles with glee. Sheryl wheels her grandmother along the gondola edge as they choose a good lookout point. Emily holds on to Nancy, the nurse, as they step into the gondola.

The gate locks them in and they are ready for take off.

Up and up and up, the balloon takes flight, and Bessie says, “It’s so smooth and so quiet.”

She recalls how loud a ride on the Goodyear blimp was in the 1920s and then reflects on that time when people would step out of their houses to watch the blimp fly by.

Bessie Anderson, 105, of Laguna Niguel, is asked if the Great Park Balloon flight really was great by Emily Beals, 16, the Dream Catchers president. The charity makes last wishes come true for hospice patients. CINDY YAMANAKA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The balloon reaches its zenith and floats. Emily’s

knuckles turn white as she grips the side of the gondola and looks out at the horizon, not daring to look down. The wind blows through Bessie’s hair and tickles her cheeks. She looks down at Orange County below without any sign of fear; she remembers that it was all orange groves when she was growing up.

“It’s like being in a skyscraper,” she says. “How high are we?”

The balloon operator says we are 40 stories high, about 400 feet up with a 360-degree view. When the balloon starts its descent, Emily looks relived. Upon landing, Bessie is glowing.

“Ahhhhh, that was a thrill! You know everybody doesn’t get to do that.”

Tears flow down Sheryl’s cheeks.

“I love to see her happy like that.” Sheryl says her father, Bessie’s son, just died in April. At the time, Bessie had pneumonia and suffered a heart attack that sent her into hospice care, which is available to those with six months or less to live.

“She still enjoys herself, every little piece of life,” Sheryl says.

“Yes, we did it,” Nancy says to Bessie.

After the flight, Caitlin’s Mom, Colleen Crommett, spreads a buffet of sandwiches on tables near the flight deck. As Bessie enjoys the lunch, her granddaughter, Sheryl explains on the wipe board how Emily organized this balloon ride. Bessie is amazed and beckons Emily to her side.

“Thank you so much,” she says with glistening eyes. “It was very sweet of you, dear.”

“You’re welcome Bessie,” Emily writes on the board.

“I know it

was a lot of work,” Bessie says to Emily. “If somebody told me I would get to do something like this at my age, I would never have believed them. So, I did. Everybody doesn’t get to ride in the big balloon.”

The story originally appeared in my Orange County Register Column Parting Ways. Contact the writer: denise@denisecarson.com

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Caitlin will be remembered for her inventive spirit that gave birth to Dream Catchers when she was just 15 years old and then went on start the club at Tesoro High School that became the Dream Team. She envisioned DreamCatchers to be like Make-a-Wish foundation for hospice especially elderly. She said most of her fellow classmates who desire to volunteer wanted to give their time to children’s organizations. So, it took some education and time to get her friends involved in DreamCatchers. Caitlin introduced her fellow high school friends to rewards of volunteering

and giving their time to the elderly.

“I want the people who will follow after me to realize that it’s our responsibility to give back to this community of people who have given so much to us,” Caitlin said.

She will confidently turn over Dream Catchers to junior Emily Beals who clearly rose as her successor over the last year. As we talked in an interview about her final dream with Dream Catchers, Caitlin became emotional but then turned to an up note as she envisioned taking on a new role as CEO.

“The Power of One,” is the title of a recent article in the Reader’s Digest featuring Caitlin and the

Caitlin Crommett, 17, (right) on her final dream the Tea Party with the Dream Team.

Dream Catchers. It’s a fitting title for such an incredible young woman who fulfilled 21 dreams in two years while finishing high school with a scholarship to attend the University of Notre Dame.  Now with graduation behind her and her freshman year of college in front of her, she envisions growing Dream Catchers into a nationwide organization. She will start with opening a chapter at Notre Dame in Indiana.

“I’m going to miss Hospice Care of the West,” Caitlin said. “They’ve inspired me. It’s been amazing to work with them since I first had the idea. I’ve experienced so much encouragement, been surrounded by giving spirits who basically asked me for nothing in return. They were angels on earth and helped me since it was first born. I could not have asked for a greater group of people.”

Donna Miller, the Director of Volunteer Services, has been Caitlin’s biggest supporter. She visited Tesoro High School and trained all the students in volunteering for hospice.

“We are so grateful to Caitlin for making these dreams come true for our patients,” said Donna. “She is a true example of how one person can transform the lives of many. The team at Hospice Care of the West, our patients and families will remember Caitlin with love and gratitude. We wish her all the success in college.”

It seems fitting to send Caitlin off to Notre Dame with an Irish Blessing:

 May the road rise to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

May the rains fall soft upon your fields,

And, until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Thank you for bringing the magic of Dream Catchers to light the journeys of many terminal patients and their families. You will be remembered always as our “teenage fairy godmother” listening to the dreams of the dying and transforming them into brilliant, unforgettable moments.

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The Dream Catchers, a non-profit organization of high school volunteers for Hospice Care of the West, preparing to make a birthday dream come true for a hospice patient and her family. Lexi Crommett and her sister, Caitlin Crommett, founder of the Dream Catchers, Maryann Verges and Emily Beals decorate for the centennial.

Caitlin Crommett, 17, and her team from the Dream Catchers, arrived with home cooked Cuban food and decorations to celebrate the life of Fortunata Mirabel, the matriarch of a large Cuban family, at her home in Mission Viejo, California.

The afternoon sunlight sparkled on the surface of the pool in the backyard and Cuban music filled the air as the girls wove streamers and balloons around the patio. The Dream Catchers are a group of high school volunteers for Hospice Care of the West, a local Orange County hospice.  Caitlin founded the non-profit organization two years ago to make last wishes and lifelong dreams for hospice patients and their families come true. She’s become a local expert at creating the kind of stages memorable last moments are made on from a last sail on a yacht on the Pacific to a last gourmet supper in bed to a final fantasy filled day at Disneyland.

Caitlin and older sister, Lexi, Emily Beals, 16, and Maryann Verges, 17, spent the morning cooking up an array of authentic Cuban dishes from recipes they found on the Internet. They’d been planning the celebration for more than four weeks from the music and food to the decorations in an effort to create the perfect setting for this family reunion.

In the house, Fortunata’s daughter-in-law, Fela Mirabel, prepared her for the festivities. She trimmed,

brushed and curled Fortunata’s hair, dusted her nose with powder and moistened her lips with lipstick.

Araceli Alvarez, 72, had a dream to celebrate her mother's 100th birthday with a Cuban-style family reunion. Her mother, Fortunata Mirabel, is in Hospice Care of the West, a local Orange County hospice.

About a month before Fortunata’s 100^th birthday, Gina Mendoza, her nurse from Hospice Care of the West, told the family about the Dream Catchers.

“You don’t often see a family taking care of patients who require this much care at home,” Mendoza said. “So, when I realized she was going to live to be 100, I thought the Dream Catchers could help them plan something special.”

Fortunata’s daughter, Araceli Alverez, 72, dreamed of bringing together the whole family, neighbors and friends together for one last birthday party. Fortunata suffers from dementia, so the centennial was more for the family.

“We wanted everyone to gather for a happy moment to celebrate our mother rather than for the funeral that would be a sad moment,” Araceli said.

More of these celebrations of life are occurring in the final stages of life. People aren’t waiting until the funeral for the family to gather around the person at the end of his or her life, instead they’re flying in from across the country to express heartfelt affections, pay tribute and gratitude before the death.

Hospice Care of the West embraces a philosophy to celebrate life because these gatherings bring about a time for familial and communal bonding that is so needed when one enters hospice, a service of care in the home for someone with a prognosis of six months or less to live.

Araceli Alvarez greets all more than 30 friends and family arriving from near and far for her mother's 100 birthday celebration made possible by the Dream Catchers.

The presence and or announcement of end of life can often make a tear in the social fabric of a family and community, these celebrations are like anticipatory stitches to bring a family together when they feel like their being wrenched apart. Most people immediately think that you go into hospice to die, but as Fortunata, her family and the Dream Catchers help us to see that it’s not just to die, but instead to make a plan of how you wish and dream of spending the limited time you have left in the company of family and friends.

As Fortunata made her entrance into the crowded kitchen of arriving reunions, her two children, six grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren along with friends from near and far bathed her and each other in hugs and kisses as the Cuban music played.

“We’re so happy, some of these people we haven’t seen a in a long time,” said Norma Diaz, 73, Fortunata’s eldest daughter.

Fela gave her mother-in-law once last primp and then clipped a corsage of fresh flowers on Fortunata’s lapel.

“I want her to look wonderful for her birthday,” Fela said. “She was an excellent mother-in-law, happy all the time and always good with the kids.”

The Dream Catchers cooked an array of traditional Cuban fare with Internet recipes.

Caitlin threaded through the crowd with other members of the Dream Team. She held a hand-made dream catcher above Fortunata sitting in a wheelchair. A dream catcher looks like a small net threaded with feathers and beads. The Dream Catchers make them at school.

“This is a dream catcher, she said. “If you hang this above your bed, it will catch the good dreams and get rid of the bad.”

With that she hung the dream catcher on the side of Fortunata’s wheelchair. Caitlin gives the dream catcher to each one of her patients as a memento of the day that their dream or last wish was granted.

“It’s amazing seeing the young people doing something for the old people,” Araceli said.

Caitlin and the Dream Catchers set up the buffet of traditional Cuban fare—arroz con pollo (chicken and rice), frijoles

de negros (black beans), stuffed bell peppers and an avocado salad. The aromas of the authentic food evoked the days when Fortunata and her daughters would cook together for the family.

Fortunata Mirabel, hospice patient, celebrates 100 surrounded by family and friends.

Fortunata’s muscular grandsons lifted her wheelchair out of the family room and onto the patio in the warm shade. She basked in the sunshine and chatter of everyone dining at the tables around her.

“We just want to keep her forever,” Fela said as she looked on at the backyard buzzing around Fortunata.

Caitlin and her team said good-bye so the family could enjoy their party. She gave Araceli a hug.

“You did a wonderful job,” Araceli said to Caitlin. “Please say ‘thank you’ to your friends.”

Shortly after, family sang Happy 100^th Birthday to their matriarch. Araceli beamed as she looked on.

“I’m going to send the pictures to my family in Cuba,” Araceli said. “I want to tell them about how these young people do such good things for old people. They should teach our children.”

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If you knew your time was short, and someone offered you a last wish, what would you ask for? Caitlin Crommett, the 17 year-old Founder of Dream Catchers, started an organization two years ago to make last wishes and dreams come true for hospice patients at Hospice Care of the West.

She was inspired by the movie “Patch Adams” about a doctor who “cared about making his patients happy rather than just treating their disease.” The spark for Dream Catchers came while watching a scene in the film when Patch Adams talks to a woman, nearing the end of life, about why she no longer wanted to eat. He discovers she’d always wanted to plunge into a pool of pasta. He grants her wish.

Caitlin has never encountered a dream quite so zany, but she has made a variety of dreams and last wishes come true since 2009. She had been volunteering for Hospice Care of the West since she was in seventh grade because her father works for the company. So, she had some experience and knowledge about the fragility of this stage of life. Yet, her experience in hospice isn’t what stands out about this exceptional young woman when

you meet or in my case interview her, it is how articulate and compassionate she comes across. She made her own dream about Dream Catchers into a reality by creating a brochure about her vision and then attending a meeting with the team at Hospice Care of the West to request that they offer her service. For those unfamiliar, a dream catcher is a Native American instrument reminiscent of a net or web with a handle that is hung over the bed to catch good dreams and keep the bad ones out.

The first dream that landed in her dream catcher was from a lifelong sailor. His name was Bernie Klein and he could no longer verbalize his last wish, so his wife made it for him. She knew that although he was wheelchair bound, one more sail in the fresh, salty, sea air with friends and family would make his life feel complete. Caitlin decided that she could charter a sailboat with a captain to take Bernie and his crew out for an afternoon at sea to celebrate his love for the ocean and sailing. They left the dock in Dana Point and glided into the Pacific on a classic 82-foot schooner named Curlew. Though, he couldn’t talk the brilliant smile on his face was worth a thousand words to Caitlin and Bernie’s wife.  The sun kissed his face while the wind tickled his cheeks and blew through his hair, all sensations he was familiar with, but missed in his diminished state. He could even for a brief moment forget about his condition and bask in one last sail.

She made Bernie’s wish come true with the help of her parents. Caitlin drew from a saving account that her parents set aside for her to go to private school, but once the word spread through the local media about Caitlin’s amazing vision she started receiving donations from the community. She founded a non-profit organization and a club at her high school to be able to accept donations. Caitlin now has a team of Dream Catchers at Tesoro High School. Together, they work on making dreams happen and hand-making dream catchers to bestow on each dreamer once the wish is granted. She’s served gourmet dinners, taken families to Disneyland, set up family reunions, gave the gift of sight in the form of eyeglasses, brought an orchestra into the home and the list goes on. But the most moving experience for Caitlin occurred when she received a dream from Larry Robinson, 75 years old.  He wished to see his sister one last time. Caitlin has a sister of her own and couldn’t possibly imagine being separated especially in the eleventh hour of life.

Caitlin called his sister, Marilyn Rands, at her home in Washington. She introduced herself, shared Larry’s dream and then offered to fly her out to California to spend time with her brother. It had been six years since they spent time together. They both missed each other. Caitlin had honestly never received so much gratitude in the hugs from Marilynn upon her arrival at the airport. When they arrived home, Larry waited in the hospital bed set up in the living room. He had been steadily declining, losing energy but he beamed when his sister walked through the front door. Caitlin saw him just completely transform, he sat up and was shining. Marilynn sat down at his bedside and embraced him. He just kept repeating her name between long, grateful hugs.

“Marilynn,” he said smiling and savoring each hug. “Oh, Marilynn.”

Marilynn kept saying over, over “I love you, I love you.”

As they reminisced, Caitlin was so touched by their heartfelt reunion that she had to hold back tears. She then brought over an Italian dinner with dessert donated by Tutto Fresco for them to dine the following night. For some reason this dream, she really felt like a part of the dream, like she was participating not just making it happen. After dinner, as customary, when she fulfills a dream, she hung a small dream catcher next to Larry’s bed to remind him that last wishes and dreams do come true.

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