palliative

Jennie & John Hik’s Story

John and Jennie Hik were high school sweethearts. Married for almost 61 years, they shared a deep affection for Royal Columbian Hospital and a decades-long commitment to supporting patient care.

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McRae family’s Story

Colleen and Murray McRae married young and were together for a remarkable 70 years when they were admitted to Royal Columbian Hospital separately in the summer of 2017. When staff learned they were husband and wife, caregivers moved them together in a room that became affectionately known as the “honeymoon suite”. It was a gesture the family appreciated, even more so in hindsight when 87-year-old Murray passed away less than a week later.

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Gladys Robinson’s Story

85-year old Gladys Robinson had been fiercely independent, enjoying life in her small cabin by a lake north of Edmonton. She still shovelled her own walk, brought in firewood for her wood-burning Franklin stove and drove her car into town to get groceries. But as she visited her family in the Lower Mainland over the Christmas season, Gladys suddenly found herself in Royal Columbian Hospital with a stunning diagnosis: terminal lung cancer. In the days that followed, as all her loved ones visited and the hospital offered palliative care, one thought kept coming back to Gladys – “this is perfect.”

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