Georgia man uses voice to soothe hospice patients

LAGRANGE, Ga. - Kevin Dunn has found peace in a place he never expected to go.

About 16 years ago, freshly laid off, the father of 3 needed a way to give back.

"The Lord spoke to me one morning and said, 'hospice,'" Dunn remembers. " I did not want to come here, because my only conception of what took place here was where people came to die."

But he overcame his fears, and began come to West Georgia Hospice in LaGrange every Monday to sing.

"When you're in this situation, your emotions are just sky high," says Jan Marshall, who is visiting a patient. "Kevin comes around with that beautiful voice of his, and he brings so much ease to the family."

Jan Marshall's parents both passed away here. Now her sister's boyfriend is here.

"You know the last thing to go on a person is a hearing," Marshall says.  "Are they aware, with their eyes?  No, but he hears it. And you can see a calming coming over him.  He loves to hear Kevin sing "Go Rest High on that Mountain.'"

Kevin kept singing two years ago, when, after 14 years of volunteering, the love of his life, his wife Deborah, got sick, and spent her final days here.

"It was something that I never, ever thought would take place, And I had some questions with God, and we all do sometimes," Dunn remembers.

He talked to a pastor friend about his grief.

"He said, 'Could it be God was preparing you for 14 years for this moment," Dunn says.

When Deborah died, Kevin Dunn's voice went quiet for a while.

"When I came back, it was very different, especially when I came to the room where she was located," he says.  "But at the end of the day, regardless of everything that took place, she was wanting me to continue in this."

Because singing is helping Kevin Dunn heal.

He hopes to keep coming back, helping families find some peace in letting go.