If angels exist, then there must be a few at Agape House.

That’s Betty Rech’s belief.

The hospice helped her brother, Roger Henderson, after doctors diagnosed melanoma, bone and prostate cancer.

He battled for two years until his death on July 9.

“In April 2015 my brother’s life changed forever when he fell while walking across the yard,” said Mrs Rech.

“He couldn’t get back up. My mother died 30 years ago and I promised I’d always take care of my younger brother.”

Helping the 54-year-old required some major life changes on her part.

She and her husband Alex took him into their home; Mrs Rech cut back her working hours from full-, to part-time. He stayed there, treated with chemotherapy until the pain became an issue.

“We were on a rollercoaster ride,” she said. “You never knew what was going to happen from one day to another. His PALS nurse Kathy Fox suggested we put him in Agape House. My brother gave everyone a hard time in the beginning; his life was changing and he didn’t know what was going on. He had a one-track mind: you’re sending me to Agape House because I’m dying. I thought the same thing. But, [Kathy] said no, it was just for pain management.”

Agape House was far from the dark, death house they’d imagined.

“They just have a very comforting home feel,” she said. “The staff there knew how to treat him and how to talk to him, and how to keep him calm.

“They explained everything to him. He started to settle in and accept what was going on. He grew to love the staff there, and they appeared to love him.”

It didn’t hurt that staff indulged him with whatever he wanted to eat.

“Everything was home-cooked,” Mrs Rech said. “His

favourites were fish and shepherd’s pie.

“Once he said to me that the shepherd’s pie there was better than mine, but he was only joking.”

Mr Henderson also loved ice cream and milkshakes.

“They had to wean him off it,” said Mrs Rech.

“He was putting on a lot of weight.”

He spent two-and-a-half months there before he was able to return home.

Over the following eight months, he lived life as best he could.

On good days he was able to enjoy lunch with friends at the Country Squire restaurant near his home.

“He had very loyal friends and family who came to see him all the time,” said Mrs Rech. “Then we noticed him going back a bit. He kept complaining about the pains in his shoulders.”

He was admitted to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital in May and died two months later. Mrs Rech is anticipating that Christmas will be particularly bittersweet.

“I’m still learning to live without him,” she said. “It’s only been five months and he was my baby brother.

“He was like a little child at Christmas. He enjoyed Christmas and loved his family.”

She remains grateful for his time at Agape House.

“I would have been stressed and worried, not having that extra support from people who knew what they were doing,” she said.

“It would have been me and my husband on our own.

“I don’t know if we would have been able to cope if we didn’t have Agape House.

“I wish we had more places like that for people in Bermuda. It is a small place, and there are so many people diagnosed with cancer.

“We need another place where people can [also] go to live and feel comfortable.”

Learn more here: www.friendsofhospice.bm.