We’ll go from rags to riches By Mike Williscraft here can be no more stark an example of the feelings toward West Lincoln Memorial Hospital’s story than the two photos inset above. The photo on the left - utter devastation after a January 1948 fire which levelled the original hospital building. On the right, you have a vision of what awaits. Both spectacular and unbelievable on opposing ends of the scale - this for the single most fundamental component to life in Niagara West - our hospital! Having covered every single, solitary bump in the road, every inhale, every exhale, every gasp, every tear of the entire 25-year ordeal, I can assure you, the level of exhaustion many have felt in recent years is 100 per cent real. Soon, it will all be worth it. There are so many people I think about as the days click by to the Spring 2022 groundbreaking for the new build. Sitting in the current site’s board room through much of January 1997 with the rest of the Save Our Hospital committee, a charged up Rev. Jim Dowden, the late Rev. Jim, taking the lead. Remember that healthcare bus cartoon? Most recall the 15,000 or so frozen souls on the football field at Grimsby Secondary on Feb. 3, 1997, the exact moment in time when the heart of the do-anything-to-preserve-thehospital entity started beating. That heart has been on life-support a few times over the years, but the sole driving force to keep that precious organ beating has been you - the residents of Niagara West, the people who know what they have in a smalltown
T
hospital and simply refused to let it of how every facet of the operation drift away on a whim of a Queen’s runs and how things will be set for Park bureaucrat and sharpened the future. knife or a provincial government’s That is a gift and I humbly thank finance minister. all for their efforts! Along the line of unique perspecThere have been several turns tives, I offer up a few examples. in the road when many - maybe Both Dr. Denise Marshall and Dr. most - thought a rebuild, or even Martha Davidson were contributors the continued existence of WLMH MIKE would never happen. There was WILLISCRAFT to the 1997 Save Our Hospital section, dealing with palliative care and genuine reason for the skepticism. WLMH’s teaching component respectively. Yes, somehow, here we are today, on the How cool is it that both can fulfill the same edge of something that is truly miraculous for content with 25 years more experience to give our community. added perspective? Back in 1997, when the future was most As well, I tracked down my good friend bleak and WLMH was slated for full closure, Mona Irwin. She was a reporter for me in I put together a 24-Page Save Our Hospital Goderich and was editor of the Lincoln Postsection for the old Grimsby Independent Express. She did the feature in 1997 about about all things hospital. It was all put together with a full staff of reporters, sales team the West Lincoln Memorial Auxiliary then, and she fulfills that content again. and a couple of key submissions from the For human interest, how about Mathew medical community. Boltz, the “miracle boy” feature in the 1997 This One Team. One Dream. Magazine feature? He was 18 at that time thanks to care -– full credit to Tony Joosse for the tag line at WLMH after he fell through the ice on – was assembled with a handful of dedicated the lake as a four-year-old in 1982. He was staff, content powered by the people who make and have made the whole place run. underwater for 10-15 minutes before being rescued. We update the story of Mathew and It was completely by design to have the his family today. people who have lived the last 25 years of And who else but the incomparable WLMH be the ones to tell you the story. Dorothy Turcotte could provide the WLMH A reporter could conduct interviews history – 25 years apart? and relate findings to readers. It would be There may be some who still don’t think it fundamentally sound and all good, but to will happen, but it’s going to happen. get the unfiltered insight and opinion from After decades of fighting, crawling and begthose who deliver healthcare to Niagara West ging - at times - political will has changed and on a daily basis is an invaluable asset to this this new build will reveal itself to all. publication and a treasure for decades to Congratulations to residents of Niagara come. In 50 years, one could pull out this West for keeping the dream alive. magazine and get a detailed snapshot in time
6 July 2021 One Team. One Dream. Magazine
