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September 26, 2024
In November of 1985, Prince Charles and Princess Diana arrived in Washington, DC for their first official visit together.
During that visit, on the evening of November 9th, Diana made one of her most iconic appearances, dancing at a White House dinner with Hollywood stars.
Millions of people remember the picture of Diana dancing with John Travolta that night, but what is lesser known is that earlier that day she paid a visit to the Washington Home and Hospice.
This was before Diana had established her formal charitable trust and she was only 24 years old and had been married to Prince Charles for four years.
At the time, my mom (Monica Koshuta) was the Administrator of the Hospice program at the Washington Home which was located in Northwest Washington DC.
The Washington Home had 178 beds for assisted living residents and in 1978 was one of the first facilities in the US to establish a dedicated space for hospice care.
When my mom joined the Hospice in 1980, hospice care was still relatively new and the six bed program she administered was one of the most progressive in the US.
It was also one of the first to provide care to people dying of AIDS.
Which at the time was a bit controversial and the Board of the Washington Home was somewhat reluctant to initiate the program because of concerns about possible protestors in front of the Home.
When asked what she would do if such protests materialized, my mom simply said, "I will go out and talk to them".
After all, even ignorant people deserve a chance to be educated.
When Diana arrived that November day, she was accompanied by then Second Lady Barbara Bush who was also on the Board of the Washington Home.
Barbara Bush and Diana, with their security detail in tow spent the first part of their visit meeting with residents of the Washington Home - several of which had British heritage.
When it came time to visit the hospice patients, Diana asked my mom to wait for a moment and turned to Barbara Bush and basically told her "We got this" before heading into the Hospice area with my Mom.
Diana wanted this part of her visit to be private so she and my mom - plus one of the security detail - spent the next hour visiting with the six hospice patients.
Before they entered each patient's room my mom would give Diana a bit of background about the patient and Diana would use this information to ask questions and learn more about each person.
She always introduced herself as Diana - not Princess Diana - and my mom said she had a remarkable way of connecting with each patient.
As they were getting ready to leave, one of the patients who was dying of AIDS beckoned for Diana to come closer.
With a sly grin on his face, he told her that it was "Worth dying for the chance to meet her."
Less than two years later, in April 1987, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, Diana opened the UK's first HIV/AIDS unit at London Middlesex Hospital.
