We were very sorry to learn last week that Helen Kass, the first director of Creative Alliance at Sherrill House in Jamaica Plain, has passed away at age 82 from leukemia and cancer. Most geriatric care managers are individual practitioners. This was especially true in the early days of the profession. So, it was a unique enterprise when Sherrill House, a non-profit nursing home based in Jamaica Plain, introduced its own care management service with Ms. Kass in the lead.
In that role, her grace and calm helped many families struggling to care for frail seniors. She assisted former Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret Marshall in caring for her mother. “Helen had this extraordinary capacity to understand what I needed, and to understand what my mother needed, and to put everything together in a way that worked for both of us. She identified experts who could really help in situation by situation by situation. Without her expertise, I don’t think I would have survived a very difficult transition.”
Ms. Kass leaves a son and two daughters, as well as her husband of 62 years, former Appeals Court Judge Rudolph Kass. To learn more about her very full life, click here.
