Tom Cassidy begins his nursing shifts at Our Lady of Peace Residential Hospice facility in St. Paul with a simple routine.
“Every day when I get here, when I put on my uniform in the locker room downstairs, I say a short prayer,” said Cassidy, 64, an RN who has spent 35 years at this care facility, opened by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne in 1941 and now an independent nonprofit, with Franciscan Clarist Sisters helping with patient care.
“I just say, ‘God, please give me the strength, give me the knowledge, give me the inner peace, give me the wisdom, the patience to go on with my day.”
These prayers matter, and they help him with the task that lies ahead — caring for people in their last days, and sometimes, their last seconds.
In a culture that is uncomfortable with death and dying, Cassidy has learned over the last three-and-a-half decades to find beauty in it. When there is a chance to sit with patients taking their final breaths, he does not hesitate to slip into the room, pull up a chair, take their hand and offer simple words of comfort.
“It’s a very intimate experience to be with that patient, hold their hand, saying, ‘It’s going to be OK. You’re going to be with your family. It’s OK to go. Your family’s going to be OK,’” said Cassidy, a member of St. Joseph of the Lakes in Lino Lakes. “It’s a special moment, it really is.”
Cassidy is special, too, say those who work with him. Denise Borglund, the assistant director of nursing at the residential hospice facility, is his supervisor and began working with him eight years ago. She had previously held a corporate nursing job at 3M, then started working at Our Lady of Peace part time as a nurse. She wanted “something a little bit different than the corporate world.”
“I was a little bit nervous about a new setting,” said Borglund, 48, a member of St. Genevieve in Centerville. “The very first shift that I had was (working) with Tom, and I still remember it to this day. Tom just sends off this calming vibe, puts any of your concerns at ease. He is an excellent teacher.”
Early on, they worked side by side as nurses caring for terminally ill patients. His attentiveness to patients and families continues to inspire her, she said.
“He’s just one of these people that you wish you could be like,” she said. “He is just so great. He is what I aspire to be.
“I don’t even know what adjectives to use to describe him. He’s just so caring, so giving, so thoughtful, considerate. He does the best patient care I could ever explain.”
Whenever a new caregiver comes on board at the 21-bed facility, Borglund brings in Cassidy to serve as a mentor and teacher. That role is becoming more important as he scales down his work hours while approaching retirement age. He currently is working 32 hours (four days) a week. He plans to go down to three days a week in January.
“He does such a great job of leading by example; I’m hoping that people will soak in what he is doing,” Borglund said. “He’s always been our go-to for having people work with him. Even if they (just) get one full shift with him, it makes a difference.”
A 35-year career in nursing is not what he envisioned after graduating from Totino-Grace High School in Fridley in 1977. He wanted to go into accounting and began to study that subject at St. Thomas College in St. Paul (now the University of St. Thomas). It didn’t last long. He took his first accounting class in his sophomore year and did poorly on the first two tests.
“I was lost,” he said. “I knew right then and there that wasn’t meant for me.”
He tried working in physical fitness, then worked for a lawn care company. Still dissatisfied, he went to visit his sister-in-law, Sharon Cassidy, a nurse who had cared for his mother, Marie, who died of ovarian cancer in 1984.
“She (Marie) was 52 when she passed away,” said Cassidy, who still gets emotional telling the story about his mother’s death. “She was the most beautiful person I’ve ever known.”
Inspired by the way Sharon had cared for his mother, he asked her about the possibility of becoming a nurse. Sharon’s brother had a friend who was working at OLP — then called Our Lady of Good Counsel Home — and Cassidy got a job as a nursing assistant there in 1988.
“I was so pleased to start there; I got $5 an hour, but I didn’t care,” Cassidy said. “The sisters were great to me.”
He studied nursing while working there and became an RN in 1992. The sisters were supportive, and he was inspired by the way they cared for patients.
“I can’t say enough about the sisters,” he said. “They were so dedicated and so caring, so much compassion. I was really blessed to be there. The Sunday mornings I worked, I’d go to 6:30 Mass, and then go to work at 7 o’clock. I just admire them for all the sacrifices they had to put in.”
Current leaders praise the work Cassidy has done for patients and families. Jeff Thorne, president and CEO who came on board in December 2022, said “we are so blessed to have Tom as a part of our staff for 35 years. He truly, in my mind, is a humble servant leader. He leads by example. His compassion that he shows our patients and their families is just outstanding.”
For Thorne, proof is in the number of people who come back every year for the annual butterfly release at the residential home. Many are family members of patients who have spent their final days at OLP and have been cared for by Cassidy.
“They want to see Tom,” Thorne said. “They want to hug him. They remember the care he provided.”
That care springs from an active prayer life and a strong relationship with God. Cassidy has felt rooted in this work since he started. He has never wavered in his belief that this is what God has called him to do. He is sustained by his faith and by advice he received years ago from his father.
“I feel the strength in my soul,” he said. “I just say to myself, I’m going to work as hard as I can, do the best I can, and just leave it up to God. My dad used to say that to me when I was having trouble in school. … So, that’s what I try to do.”
