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At 16 Ethel started working at a tuberculosis sanatorium in St. John’s, N.L. It was her first taste of care work and, at the time, it was not something she enjoyed. It depressed her to watch young people dying, with little anyone could do to help She left the job two years later and didn’t return to care work for another 24 years '

By 1945 Ethel was married and owned a house with her husband John Perrin The two had survived the Great Depression, eking out a living as farmers It was a simple life, but it suited the couple

In fact, they felt so fortunate relative to the times they were living in, they volunteered to take in foster children At first it was just two but over the next seven years it grew At one point she cared for five siblings.

Unfortunately, persistent and intense migraines forced Ethel to discontinue the foster care arrangement However, it wasn’t long before she returned to providing care, this time to adults with intellectual disabilities

As part of a pilot project aimed at deinstitutionalizing mental health care, Ethel was asked by authorities with the Waterford Hospital to take in a number of former patients She agreed, stipulating that she would need more space before being able to care for more people

The authorities agreed and over following years both Ethel’s patient load as well as her house grew At the home’s peak, Ethel was caring for 64 people. The house, formerly a modest abode, now had the monicker of “The Big House.”

With more patients came more work and Ethel had to hire additional staff to help keep up However, she insisted on doing as much as she could on her own Perhaps a symptom of her frugal years during the Great Depression, she personally darned patient’s socks and mended their clothes at no cost to the patient

“My mother says she’d never seen a woman work so hard, prior to meeting my grandmother, or since,” said Tracy

A Growing Business

Over time, Ethel’s children began to play a role in the family business, learning what there was to learn from their mother and father. At 72, Ethel, then a widow, stepped away from the “Big House”, dividing the business up between her three sons and two uncles She bought an older home, oversaw the renovations, and opened it up to another 16 men from the Waterford Hospital Eight years later she retired for good

The family opened multiple care homes in Newfoundland and eventually P E I , where they opened Clinton View Lodge in 1987

By then Ethel was in her early nineties and had developed some health issues which required her to move from her home in Newfoundland to P.E.I., where she could be closer to family. She stayed briefly with Tracy’s parents, before moving into Clinton View Lodge, where she remained until passing away in 2009 at 103 The following year the family sold the lodge, closing a chapter on their decades of care work

An Inspiration

For Tracy, who was always close to her grandmother and even shares her unfortunate predisposition for migraines, Ethel was an inspiration

“I don’t know if she had it wrong or right,” Tracy, now a nurse at Andrews of Summerside, said “She probably didn’t have it right, because all she did was work. But it was a good cause. She looked after people and did a really good job at it.”

In fact, some of the foster children and patients she looked after maintained contact with Ethel years after the fact

“They’d be adults, 40, 50 years old,” Tracy said. “Even if they moved away from Newfoundland, whenever they came back in the summer and look up Mrs Perrin They’d want to see Mrs Perrin ”

One patient in particular became like a daughter Betty, who lived with the Perrin’s, developed an especially close relationship with Ethel, even following her footsteps into senior care. As an adult, she spent every summer vacation visiting Ethel at her Newfoundland home.

“She just instilled in me to care for everyone, ” Tracy said of her grandmother “Look at them as God would and treat them kindly and fairly and gently ”

Barb Pye has been an Andrews of Parkhill team member for 10 years.

When Barb first joined our team as program coordinator in 2013 she didn't intend to stay long However, plans changed

"I came for two, stayed for 10," Barb said

The Andrews team, the residents, the work itself, all contributed to a sense of purpose that Barb fell in love with

"They welcomed me with open arms, " she said "This place, I can't explain it I don't say I come to work, I get to come here every day. It's not a job. I can't explain it. It's so rewarding."

During her decade as program coordinator at Parkhill, Barb has grown the residents' activity schedule, adding programs like noodle ball and basketball. Most recently she spearheaded the home's fundraising efforts for the IG Wealth Management Walk for Alzheimer's and raised more than $1,300 in a matter of weeks.

"I'm just overwhelmed," she said of the fundraising results. "It's amazing. The people here, I can't say enough about them. They're part of me. "