HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Laughter echoes through the kitchen as two friends take turns preparing lunch, injecting a few playful jokes into an already spirited conversation.
On this particular day, meatloaf is on the menu along with healthy helpings of sides, including mashed potatoes and squash with sweet onion.
As one quickly learns from watching them, volunteers Neil and Sonny make meals that come highly anticipated.
“We post our pictures on Facebook every Monday, and say, ‘Here’s what we’re serving in Omega House today for the staff and patients.’ We’ve got a lot of people who look forward to it, and we get more volunteers,” Sonny explains.
Sonny and Neil, and perhaps the laughter they bring, are all part of the key ingredients that make up Omega House, a mainstay in Montrose complete with a living room and garden that you might not immediately realize is a hospice.
I will treat them as if they were my own.
Eleanor Munger, founder of Omega House, in 1986
“The environment, it’s like home, and I’ve never seen that before,” another volunteer, Ramona Fridel, told ABC13.
But making it feel like home means it’s functioning just as founder Eleanor Munger intended it.
“She was a retired Montessori school teacher, so she had no medical background whatsoever. She was 74 years old, and she just felt like this was something that people need – a really loving, caring environment,” said Omega House director Sandy Stacy.
Munger’s inspiration came during the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 80s as she visited hospitals and HIV patients who once lived vibrant lives as designers, decorators, ballet dancers, and business owners, but when they became sick, found themselves ostracized not only by hospital staff and society, but their own families.
“I will treat them as if they were my own.” Eleanor Munger opened Omega House Hospice in the 1980s after visiting dying HIV/AIDs patients who had been ostracized by society.
“It’s the fear that nobody knew how it was transmitted, so the (hospital) staff, they had them in isolation,” Stacy explained. “(Staff) masked. They had disposable dishes. That also led to a lot of the families that didn’t want to come in direct contact with them because they didn’t know if it was casual contact.”
“They (the patients) had missed the touch that they had lost in hospitals,” Stacy recalled. “And the patients noticed that. They noticed they weren’t being touched.”
Education about HIV has since come a long way, as researchers have learned the virus can be sexually transmitted through bodily fluids as well as through blood or breastmilk.
However, you can’t get the virus by shaking hands or hugging a person who has HIV. You also cannot get HIV from contact with objects such as dishes, toilet seats, or doorknobs used by a person with HIV, according to a federal government website.
The virus isn’t spread through the air or water, nor is it spread by mosquitoes, ticks, or other insects.
We don’t want to be seen as a diagnosis, whether it’s diabetes, cancer, or HIV.
Dr. Charlene Flash, President and CEO of Avenue 360 Health and Wellness
Once Munger saw the need, she turned to her church for help. As Stacy explains, a deacon gave Munger a $10,000 check she was able to use to purchase a house on Branard Street in Montrose.
She recruited a fellow church member, Dr. Robert Awe, to serve as medical director and guide.
“She just had such a calming, quiet nature to sit with somebody at the end of life,” Stacy said.
ABC13 was there in 1986 as Munger shared her mission in her own words during an open house in August of that year.
“I will treat them as if they were my own, and I will act out my love for them in nursing care, counseling if they want it,” Munger told then – ABC13 reporter Leslie Brinkley.
Omega House’s opening made Houston one of the few cities in the U.S. with this type of pioneering hospice care for AIDS patients.
The Texas State Historical Association notes that the hospice ultimately received License No. 1 from the state of Texas as a special care facility with hospice designation. That made it the first such licensed residential hospice facility in the state, TSHA said.
The year 1986 was also significant because that was when the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses announced the virus that causes AIDs would officially be known as Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV.
“What you learn when you care for people living with HIV is that it’s more than the disease. It’s about the person,” said Dr. Charlene Flash, President and CEO of Avenue 360 Health and Wellness. “We all want to be centered. We don’t want to be seen as a diagnosis, whether it’s diabetes, cancer, or HIV.”
Dr. Flash, an HIV physician trained in medicine and pediatrics, knew since she was a little girl that she wanted to end HIV.
Through her work, Dr. Flash led the way on HIV prevention, developing one of the first programs in the country – outside of a clinical trial – to prescribe pre-exposure pro-phylaxis or PrEP to people without HIV who are at high risk for the virus.
“The virus doesn’t know if you’re Black or you’re white or you’re Spanish. It doesn’t know if you are gay or you are straight. The virus is a virus. And so every person can be at risk for HIV,” Dr. Flash said.
Recent data provides a picture of what that risk looks like.
A report from Harris County Public Health released in April 2025 found that between 2016 and 2022, rates of people living with HIV and new diagnoses of HIV were higher in Harris County than in Texas.
The 25 to 34-year-old age group had the highest rates for new cases. Black and multiracial communities, the study says, experience the highest rates of HIV cases in the county.
That’s why experts say testing and prevention are so important. You can find information about free testing and screenings here.
We’re filling a gap. We don’t judge them here.
Sandy Stacy, Director, Omega House
Stacy felt called to work with HIV patients as well, telling ABC13 she knew how limited resources were for them, so at age 40, she went to school to become a nurse.
“I wanted to do more,” she said.
Stacy was named director of Omega House Hospice in 1998.
The hospice, Stacy says, first primarily served the LGBT community, but it has since grown to become a refuge for those who have sometimes fallen through the cracks or been ostracized by society, from the homeless and recently incarcerated to those experiencing mental health issues and substance use disorders.
“It’s a mix of people that would never sit at the table together, and today at lunch, they will be,” Stacy said. “So that’s also something kind of rewarding to see.”
An example of that humanity came when a transgender woman moved to Omega House after Stacy says she was being pushed out of a hospital.
“The nurses, myself, would sit in there with her, just reassure her, put gloss on her lips, just things that you would do for anybody,” Stacy said. “I felt like she didn’t have to pretend with us. We called her her female name, which the hospital was not. And so, we’re filling a gap. We don’t judge them here.”
That willingness to care for those often ignored is also why Dr. Flash has described Omega House as “the emerald of the community.”
“Omega House is a space of hope for those who feel like all hope is lost. Omega House is a space of care for people who felt like there was no opportunity to be cared for,” Dr. Flash said.
The eight-room hospice offers 24-hour nursing as well as pet therapy. It has served more than 1,700 people to date, and a large part of that is due to volunteers.
According to the hospice, volunteers logged 5,000 hours just last year.
Stacy says the difference Omega House makes is obvious.
“I’ve had parents or family say, ‘I was worried he’d be found dead on the street, and I come in here, and he’s in this beautiful room, and he is clean, and y’all shaved him. It’s like I never thought I would see that again,'” she said, adding that everyone in the hospice supports each other as there are losses almost weekly.
“It makes me feel that I’m a big part of something that’s happening in the world, where people are comfortable and they are not scared to be in a place like this,” Fridel said. “Especially in their last days, it’s very important that you don’t want to die alone. And these people come in, and they make a big difference to them that they’re not going to be afraid to die alone.”
“That’s how I feel that I make that difference to that person, that they are not afraid,” Fridel continued.
And as Munger told ABC13 in 1986, she wasn’t afraid either.
“I have faced death myself, and I’m comfortable with it. That’s easier for someone as old as I am than it is for the younger people, and I think I can share a little of that even if it’s not put into words,” Munger said.
Omega House will celebrate 40 years of service in 2026.
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Niko Travis is a dedicated health writer with a passion for providing clear, reliable, and research-backed information about medications and mental health. As the author behind TrazodoneSUC, Niko simplifies complex medical topics to help readers understand the benefits, uses, and potential risks of Trazodone. With a commitment to accuracy and well-being, Niko ensures that every article empowers readers to make informed decisions about their health.
