Characteristically upbeat and funny, when 89-year old Dorrie came for a tour of the Roozen Family Hospice Centre she announced: “I’m not leaving, I’m coming here!”
After falling in her bathroom a month later, and becoming too ill for her best friend Eleanor to keep looking after her, Dorrie counts herself lucky that she could move into the hospice when the time came that she really needed to.
Dorrie grew up in Canmore, where her dad was a Park Ranger. “I was around horses more than people”, she says. Dorrie remembers seeing a horse yawning and leaning into its mouth to count its teeth… resulting in the horse biting her and breaking her jaw. At the tender age of three, she knew it was an accident and the horse didn’t mean to do it. Her deep love of horses never left her.
As she grew older, Dorrie dreamed of becoming an air hostess. At that time, it was also a requirement to be a nurse, so she joined the air force for 3 years as the next best thing. Later she went on to work for IBM and met her husband Peter in the late 1950’s, marrying in Reno. Through the marriage, her step-daughter Maureen also joined the family.
Settling in Edmonton after the marriage, Peter’s construction work often took him away from home. Although she missed him, she always made the most of things. When Peter suffered a brain aneurism in 1993, Dorrie moved into a senior’s apartment in Edmonton’s west end, while her husband spent his last 5 years in hospital. Living alone for 21 years, Dorrie was very independent.
“At 89, it’s kinda hard asking for help”, Dorrie says. She describes the hospice staff as so kind and nothing is ever a trouble. “I’m more pampered here than I’ve ever been. We’re looked after, entertained, and the cooks are the best. We’re family and this is home”.
Dorrie’s decision to make a financial gift to the Roozen Family Hospice Centre means a lot to her. Wanting others to receive the same great care as she has, she says with tears in her eyes: “After being here, what else could I do?”
Dorrie points out that the hospice didn’t miss a thing for comfort, such as the size of the bathroom, the ability for the bed to expand from single to double (she likes the double), and that there are no confines – including hot chocolate at five in the morning if she wants. “People come here to be comforted and that’s exactly what they do here, taking care of every need.”
Looking back on her 89 years, Dorrie says: “Life’s been very, very good to me – and this is the best of all.”