Morehead Memorial Hospital lights Tree of Life in memory of late physician

From staff reports
Published: December 4, 2008

More than 100 people gathered in the Day Hospital lobby at Morehead Memorial Hospital on Tuesday for the Tree of Life Lighting Ceremony. Each came to honor and remember special people in their lives.
For the past 25 years, a news release said, the lighting of the tree that sits atop the hospital has symbolized the beginning of the holiday season. Each $5 love light and $100 starlight is placed in someone’s honor or in someone’s memory. For each donation, acknowledgement cards are sent and the names are written into the Book of Honor and Memory, which is displayed in the hospital’s main lobby throughout the season.
Each year the star atop the tree is dedicated to a person selected by the Tree of Life Committee whose devotion to Morehead Hospital has been strong and enduring. This year, the committee decided to honor the late Dr. Jim Austin.
Austin practiced at Eden Internal Medicine since 1982 and served as a member of the Rockingham County Board of Education.
Nancy Foddrell, Tree of Life Committee chair, said, “His footprint was large as is the case with people who give so much of themselves. It is these people, the Jim Austins, who make the world a better place for the rest of us.”
Austin’s family, including his wife, Lisa, daughters, Stephanie and Sophie, mother, Shirley, and father, Bill, were part of the Tree of Life lighting ceremony.
Proceeds for this year’s Tree of Life project will go toward an EKG machine for the Cardiopulmonary Department. An EKG is performed to monitor heart functions and aid in the diagnosis of heart-related problems. An additional EKG unit will help to minimize the possibility of a delay when this test is needed, the release said.