We Go From Rags To Riches - Opinion

We’ll go from rags to riches

By Mike Williscraft

There 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 hospital and simply refused to let it drift away on a whim of a Queen’s Park bureaucrat and sharpened knife or a provincial government’s finance minister.

There have been several turns in the road when many - maybe most - thought a rebuild, or even the continued existence of WLMH would never happen. There was genuine reason for the skepticism.

Yes, somehow, here we are today, on the edge of something that is truly miraculous for our community.

Back in 1997, when the future was most bleak and WLMH was slated for full closure, I put together a 24-Page Save Our Hospital section for the old Grimsby Independent about all things hospital. It was all put together with a full staff of reporters, sales team and a couple of key submissions from the medical community.

This One Team. One Dream. Magazine -– full credit to Tony Joosse for the tag line – was assembled with a handful of dedicated staff, content powered by the people who make and have made the whole place run.

It was completely by design to have the people who have lived the last 25 years of WLMH be the ones to tell you the story.

A reporter could conduct interviews and relate findings to readers. It would be fundamentally sound and all good, but to get the unfiltered insight and opinion from those who deliver healthcare to Niagara West on a daily basis is an invaluable asset to this publication and a treasure for decades to come. In 50 years, one could pull out this magazine and get a detailed snapshot in time of how every facet of the operation runs and how things will be set for the future. That is a gift and I humbly thank all for their efforts! Along the line of unique perspectives, I offer up a few examples. Both Dr. Denise Marshall and Dr. Martha Davidson were contributors to the 1997 Save Our Hospital section, dealing with palliative care and WLMH’s teaching component respectively.

How cool is it that both can fulfill the same content with 25 years more experience to give added perspective?

As well, I tracked down my good friend Mona Irwin. She was a reporter for me in Goderich and was editor of the Lincoln PostExpress. She did the feature in 1997 about the West Lincoln Memorial Auxiliary then, and she fulfills that content again.

For human interest, how about Mathew Boltz, the “miracle boy” feature in the 1997 feature? He was 18 at that time thanks to care at WLMH after he fell through the ice on the lake as a four-year-old in 1982. He was underwater for 10-15 minutes before being rescued. We update the story of Mathew and his family today.

And who else but the incomparable Dorothy Turcotte could provide the WLMH history – 25 years apart?

There may be some who still don’t think it will happen, but it’s going to happen.

After decades of fighting, crawling and begging - at times - political will has changed and this new build will reveal itself to all.

Congratulations to residents of Niagara West for keeping the dream alive.

MIKE WILLISCRAFT

Our community showed strength and resolve working together. Heartfelt thanks to the community, Government of Ontario, MPP Sam Oosterhoff, Towns of Grimsby, Lincoln & West Lincoln, Niagara Region and HHS for saving our beloved hospital and getting the new build started next year.

From Save & Rebuild Community Action Group Co-Chairs: Tom Estall, Tony Joosse & Cindy Toth