Social media, area organizations help Springfield hospice patient meet Dolly Parton

It's become difficult for Jackie Carroll, who has Alzheimer's and dementia, to carry on conversations with most people. But she still chats daily with Dolly Parton on the phone, like she has for the 17 years Arc of the Ozarks residential director Tena Morrow has known her.

Or at least Carroll pretends she does, holding an imaginary phone to her ear as she checks in with the Queen of Country: "Okay. Have a good one, Dolly. All right, honey. Bye, hon."

On May 13, Carroll got to have a real conversation when she visited the Queen of Country in person at Dollywood. A social media post about Carroll's passion for Parton was shared by nearly 700 people, leading to an invitation to Parton's theme park, which Arc of the Ozarks and CoxHealth at Home worked to make possible. According to Carroll's family, she has loved Dolly Parton since she was a little girl, and knows all the words to "Jolene" and "9 to 5."

After receiving the call that Parton wanted to meet Carroll, "Everybody was like, 'Whatever we need to do to get this dream done, we’re going to do it,'" Morrow said.

'Perfect timing' for a 'once-in-a-lifetime' experience

Carroll is in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's disease, and also has Down syndrome.

Carroll began receiving hospice care at the start of 2023, Morrow said, in an effort for her to remain in her home as she ages. While other things have changed, the one "thing Jackie has always had in her life is a love of music," which led the Arc to work with CoxHealth at Home's music therapist Emily McKinney.

According to the National Down Syndrome Society, the risk for people with Down syndrome developing Alzheimer's disease increases with each decade of life after age 40, and the overall lifetime risk of developing Alzheimer's disease for individuals with Down syndrome is more than 90%. Scientists think that the extra chromosome present in individuals with Down Syndrome may have an impact on increased production of beta-amyloid, a main component in the plaques suspected to cause Alzheimer's-related brain changes, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Carroll is 54.

"(The trip was) perfect timing, because unfortunately Jackie is declining pretty fast," Morrow said. "This was a great time for her to be able to go and experience this, a once-in-a-lifetime thing."

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"Even as other things become more challenging for Jackie, like communication is less and just completing day-to-day tasks becomes more challenging and her world is getting a little smaller because of the diagnosis she's dealing with, she will still sing every word to so many of Dolly's songs in our music therapy visits together," McKinney said. "It's obvious that Dolly still brings such a sparkle back to her eyes and that Dolly really brings her back into the present moment."

Music therapy is a field similar to occupational or physical therapy, McKinney said, and aims to help patients achieve goals like reducing anxiety or increasing socialization.

A 'team effort' to make the trip happen

While she's hesitant to take credit for it since "it was certainly a team effort" from the start, McKinney was the one who initially brought up the idea of having Dolly Parton meet one of her biggest fans.

"I met Jackie and saw her Dolly Parton room, and I just, I just got chills," McKinney said. (Carroll's bedroom is decked out with Dolly Parton photos, pillows and memorabilia.)

After bringing that idea to the acting director and business director of CoxHealth at Home, the marketing team worked to take photos and make a social media post on April 12. It was shared by nearly 700 people, and about a month later, Carroll got to meet her idol.

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McKinney said "everyone kicked in so much in so many ways" so that Carroll could be cleared to travel, have access to medication, transportation and, of course, get the right outfit in which to meet Dolly Parton.

"She’s Dolly’s soul sister: We always have our makeup done, and our hair done," Morrow said. "She’s very girly-girly."

Two staff members, a supervisor and McKinney accompanied Carroll on her trip to Dollywood. McKinney said that stories like Carroll's are "hospice doing what hospice does: Our whole goal is to help people write the best, most beautiful final chapters that they can, and to help them do that with dignity and comfort."

However, the Dollywood chapter is a unique one.

"I get to witness beautiful and incredible moments every day in this line of work, but I don't know that I'm ever going to witness anything quite so cool and spectacular and heartwarming as seeing the look on Jackie's face when she realized Dolly Parton was sitting right next to her," McKinney said.

Susan Szuch is the health and public policy reporter for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on Twitter @szuchsm. Story idea? Email her at sszuch@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield hospice patient visits Dollywood, meets Dolly Parton