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Ginette Boucher enters CHEO on a bright morning in late May where she spots her mom, Lucienne Markwell, as they meet up for a special tea date, and one can see her immediate childlike joy.
Ginette is a part of CHEO history. The 57-year-old was the hospital’s first patient in the intensive care unit (ICU) — after the family’s life changed forever on July 5, 1974.
Ginette, who often goes by “Ginnie,” was playing outside after dinner on a quiet street in Ottawa’s Overbrook neighbourhood when she was struck by an impaired driver.
The seven-year-old was rushed to The Ottawa Hospital’s General campus — CHEO was not yet two months old — for emergency treatment. She suffered paralysis on the right side of her body and spent 46 days in a coma.
Ginnie’s mother vividly remembers the day her daughter was rushed to the hospital. She remembers leaning over her and telling her to breathe.
Ginnie stayed at the General for a few weeks before she was transferred to CHEO. She eventually woke up in the CHEO ICU and would spend seven months recovering at the children’s hospital.
From that point forward CHEO became Lucienne’s second home, and she was hired by the hospital’s housekeeping department in October 1974, while Ginnie was still recovering, moving over from Montfort Hospital.
She would work full-time at CHEO for 32 years and then continued as a casual worker for another 11 years on weekends.
In 2016, Lucienne had to retire from CHEO due to surgery related to a bone cancer diagnosis. This also meant she could no longer care for Ginnie as she had done for more than four decades.
As a result, due to Ginnie’s specific and extensive care needs, Ginnie moved to a special group home in Hawkesbury, Ont., which cares for people with complex challenges. The transition was difficult at times because of Ginnie’s ongoing struggle with short-term memory loss.
Lucienne, who is almost 82, lives in a retirement home in Casselman, Ont. Living away from her youngest daughter has been tough for her, too.
“I love my children,” she said. “I love my little family."
The visit to CHEO brought them together at the same spot Ginnie received care when she needed it most, 50 years ago, and for several years after as she rehabilitated.
The mother and daughter reminisced over cups of orange pekoe tea in the hospital’s Rainbow Cafeteria and spent time looking through a photo album that said: “There are friends, there are family. And then there are friends that become family.”
Returning to CHEO also reconnected Lucienne with her hospital family, including her grandson Marc-Antoine Chevrier who now works there.
She was brought to tears talking to the friends she made while at CHEO, including a former colleague who affectionately refers to her as his “second mom.”
Lucienne said photos of their visit to CHEO would be added to Ginnie’s album so she could always remember the day, almost 50 years since she first arrived.