Gainesville — It’s a common dream to want to run away from life and reinvent a new life in another place. Vicki McMahon actually did it. A love for horses and the desire to escape rain and mud brought McMahon to Texas in 2007. “It’s been a fun, mid-life adventure,” McMahon, administrative assistant with Home Hospice of Cooke County, said of her move from Longview, Wash. to Gainesville. McMahon said she quit her job and loaded her horses for the 2,100-mile trip to Gainesville. Her destination was a home with its own showbarn and arena. Her goal was to “move up in the horse world.” In addition to her job with Home Hospice, she also raises horses. She said before she moved here, she was captivated by a photo of her future home which included facilities for show horses. “My own arena? Gosh, wouldn’t that be cool?” she remembers telling friends after seeing a picture of the arena. But the idea of moving to the Gainesville area was still dream. She left the number of her real estate agent in a purse and didn’t think of it again. “Then, one day, I was cleaning out my purse and I found the number. I said, ‘That’s to that house in Texas,’” she said. She called the agent and decided to give Texas a try. Leaving Longview wasn’t easy. It meant moving away from her family including her son Corey and grandsons Landon, 5 and Greydon, 3. She admitted she misses them and keeps family photos on a wall beside her desk. So far, she said her son and grandsons haven’t visited her here. “That’s the biggest drawback, but I visit them several times a year,” she said. She might miss her family, but McMahon said she does not miss the wet Northwestern weather. Her lifestyle — which includes raising horses, hunting and “all kinds of outdoor activities” — means she spends a lot of time outside, a prospect that, in Washington, left her trudging through mud on a daily basis. “I was out twice a day feeding horses on five acres. I went out on a Gator (ATV) and there were rooster tails (of mud). Then I’d turn around and drive back on the Gator and again, rooster tails all the way,” she said. When she first arrived in Texas, McMahon didn’t know many people. “I had some friends from the horse industry who own a ranch — the Diamond 2B — in Sanger,” she said. For a time. she worked with her Sanger friends who own a flooring company. “Then the bottom fell out of the economy,” she said, and the job ended. Undaunted, she put her years of medical office work to use when she accepted a position with Home Hospice of Cooke County. McMahon said she worked in a plebotomy and opthmalogy clinics, but she said she had no previous experience with hospice care. She does no direct patient care, but said she understands that she is, at times, a voice for the agency. “Many times, I am the first person a (potential client or family member) talks to. It’s important to be polite and professional,” she said. Like others who work in home hospice, McMahon said her job can be difficult. In two and a half years with Home Hospice of Cooke County, she has developed respect for hospice caregivers. “It takes a special kind of person to do this work,” she said. “It’s sad, especially for the younger (clients). I think the best way to feel about it is that we are able to manage pain and give the client and their families support in the last days of a person’s illness...If we could just somehow encourage people to allow us to be a part of their lives sooner, we can give them and their families more time together, more time to do what they want to do,” she said.
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Vicki McMahon works the front desk at Home Hospice of Cooke County. The Washington native said two years ago, she quit her job, loaded her horses and headed for a new life in Texas. Delania Trigg
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