Edmonton could soon have its first stand-alone residential community hospice.
The Pilgrims Hospice Society launched a campaign to build the $15-million Roozen Family Hospice Centre.
Maude Bombardier became a volunteer at Pilgrims Hospice Society five years after her 27-year-old brother, Emmanuel, spent his last days at a hospice in San Francisco, Calif., in 2014.
“I remember the first time I walked it; it felt like a home.… just coming in, holding my brother’s hand and telling us, ‘OK, you need a break. Go for lunch, and we’ll take care of your brother,’ and it felt so reassuring.”
The local facility offers day programs three days a week for people with life-limiting illnesses and loved ones dealing with grief.
To make way for the new 28,000 square feet-centre with three levels and 12 suites, the old one, located in Crestwood, would be demolished.
“We’re helping people as soon as they are diagnosed or ready to access services through the grief journey,” Monica Robson, the society’s executive director, told CTV News. “Typically prognosis of three to four months to live, they would be admitted to the residential hospice program and they would live there for their final days and months of life.”
The new building would also create a community for people going through a similar ordeal; a space where patients and family members can support each other and grieve.
“I think in my grief journey this is where I need to be and I’m in good place to start helping other people," Bombardier said.
With files from CTV Edmonton’s Nicole Weisberg
