My son Kyle Forgey, his wife Jennifer and 2 1/2 year old son Zayden moved to and bought a house in Forks last spring. Kyle was the manager of several resorts in West Yellowstone, Montana and took a transfer to become the manager of Kalaloch Lodge.

They both immediately fell in love with the area and community.

Unfortunately, Jennifer was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and lost her brave, hard fought battle in Forks Community Hospital on Dec. 18, 2015. Jennifer’s dad previously wrote a letter to you in regard to this but I wanted to expound on the compassion of everyone we came in contact with in the hospital and community of Forks during that difficult time.

I only regret not getting the names of all the people that were involved but I wasn’t thinking too clearly at the time. From the time we got to the hospital, we had care, concern, understanding and compassion like I have never experienced at any other medical facility I have been in.

All (I believe it was nine nurses that we had contact with including the doctor) went out of their way to make sure we understood everything that was going on and answered all our questions. They provided us with snacks, water and juices.

The staff continually made sure we were comfortable and even the maintenance men brought in extra chairs for us and then they checked back with us periodically to see if there was anything we needed.

When we were tired, because this was a several-day experience for us and we were there day and night, they found empty beds for us to rest in. Around the community we experienced no difference in compassion and caring. We stayed four nights in the Olympic Suites and were given a very discounted rate and the owner even came by the hospital and prayed over Jennifer with family members.

We ate at Blakeslee’s Bar & Grill and Darcy (not sure of the spelling) and the owner expressed their sympathies and picked up our tab. We went to Thriftway to buy gift baskets for the nurses at the hospital and a lady said she would make them up for us because her daughter was a nurse at the ER and was there when they brought Jennifer in.

The morning after Jennifer’s passing, she came by the house with food and eating utensils and offered to furnish dinner. She didn’t even know us. Zayden attends a pre-school class in Forks and the parents got together and gave him a year’s scholarship. We had this same experience our entire time there no matter if we were going through a checkout stand at Thriftway or getting our hair cut at the barbers. You would never, in this day and age, have this kind of experience in any community especially considering the short time they have lived there. I want to express our sincere thanks for your outpouring of love and support during our trying time. You all made a terrible situation better.

Again, thank you so much and I look forward to visiting Kyle, Zayden and Forks many times a year.

Dr. Doug Forgey and Family and Tom and Robin Cozad

Washougal