Our Stories

When it comes to attending 911 appreciation events, no one is holding Frank Carberry’s feet to the fire.
 
Frank, 88, spent 30 years with the fire service in North Vancouver, retiring in 1985 as an assistant fire chief. He’s now a resident at Pacifica Retirement Residence, and a regular at their annual 911 appreciation events.
 
Active firefighters from Surrey Fire Service brought their truck and swapped stories with Frank and another resident and former firefighter, Bob Longshaw. As soon as they discovered Frank’s illustrious service record, they referred to him as “Chief” for the rest of the day—much to his delight.

“Fire trucks have changed a lot since my time; especially the equipment,” says Frank, who in his late twenties was working as a garage mechanic where a fire chief brought his car in for service.

“One day he asked me if I would be interested in joining the fire service as a mechanic,” said Frank. “I thought about it, asked my wife, and joined up on June 2, 1955.”

Over the next three decades, Frank worked his way up through the ranks—from lieutenant to captain, and eventually to assistant fire chief. He was on call the night of the Second Narrows Bridge collapse in North Vancouver in 1958, when eighteen steel workers lost their lives. He remembers that night in vivid detail, some 57 years later. The bridge was subsequently rebuilt and renamed the “Ironworkers Memorial Bridge” in 1994 to honour those who died in the collapse.

Following his retirement from the fire service, Frank worked briefly as a snow equipment mechanic at a ski resort on Mount Seymour, North Vancouver. He has been living at Pacifica Retirement Residence since March 2011.

Where can you get fit, enjoy a free pancake breakfast and raise money to fund a cure for Alzheimer’s disease?

The 2015 Dash to Defeat Dementia fundraising event took place on August 23 at the Bruce's Mill Conservation Area in Stouffville Ontario—home of the Sugar Bush Maple Syrup Festival.

Participants on the 5K, 10K and Kids Dash run and walk events, took the trail route through the provincial park, and were issued with special t-shirts containing a chip that records their time crossing the finish line. Everyone received a medal and a swag bag for taking part.

Bloomington Cove started this event in 2010 with forty participants walking along Main Street in Stouffville town centre. In 2012, they added a run; and the following year it was moved to Bruce’s Mill before being rebranded as Dash to Defeat Dementia in 2014. 

This year had over 250 participants as well as fifty volunteers to help make the morning safe and enjoyable for everyone.

“Every year the event grows in popularity,” said Bloomington Cove’s executive director Janet Iwaszczenko. She anticipates raising their target of $25,000 from this year’s run to add to the $89,000 they have already donated to the Baycrest Foundation for Alzheimer’s research since 2010. This will bring the expected grand total raised to $114,000 since the events first began. 

A unanimous decision was made by employees and families to raise money directly for medical research to find a cure for Alzheimer’s and related dementias.

“We’re inviting people to do this as a family,” said Janet, referring to the various runs and walks available for all ages, levels of fitness and capabilities within the community.

Many participants competed in the form of teams, including York Region Police who crossed the finish line four seconds before the Whitchurch-Stouffville Fire & Emergency Services.

Speakers at the event included Sienna’s CEO Lois Cormack, Janet Iwaszczenko, and the Mayor of Whitchurch-Stouffville Justin Altmann, who donated bananas for the runners. Bloomington Cove also offered a free pancake breakfast with produce donated from local grocers—enough to make over a thousand pancakes. That’s a lot of eggs!

The glorious sunshine was a stark contrast to the 2012 event when the heavy rain and strong winds of Hurricane Sandy added an unexpected challenge. But come rain or shine, Janet is determined to keep fundraising for this important research.

“This event is about being socially responsible and giving back to the community. Let's continue to work together to one day hear someone say, ‘I'm an Alzheimer’s Survivor’,” she said.

Alzheimer's is a terminal disease of the brain that erases memory and makes simple tasks difficult, such as eating and dressing. There is no known cure, and it is eventually fatal.

Bloomington Cove is a licensed long-term care community in Ontario entirely dedicated to dementia care for its 112 residents. 

Norm Brown and Beverly Fleck joined a group of residents from Red Oak Retirement Residence who went to Perth Ontario for an afternoon picnic, and to attend the Classical Theatre Festival production of “Barefoot in the Park”.
 
For Norm and Beverly, the July 22 trip to Perth also led to a trip down memory lane. During lunch, lifestyle consultant Jennifer Nason took a few minutes to introduce everyone, providing a reminder of first and last names. This had Beverly to her feet; and she relocated herself to sit beside Norm.
 
Bev turned to Norm and asked, “Did you ever live in the Glebe?” He responded, “Yes, I lived on Third Avenue.” With a pleasant smile Beverly said, “I lived on Fourth Avenue. My name was Beverly Mick”. Norm’s face lit up, and he declared, “We were backyard neighbours”.
 
You could see immediate recognition from the expression on Norm’s face, and an abundance of fond memories coming to his mind. Norm and Beverly spent the remainder of the picnic catching up. Norm shared that the last time he recalled seeing Beverly was approximately 65 years ago when she was on her way to a football game.
 
Norm’s grandmother and Bev’s mother were good friends, and the two families often enjoyed activities together. Beverly was friends with Norm’s younger brother Jerry.
 
Beverly and Norm both lived in the Glebe as children until they married in 1950 and 1951, respectively. Norm has lived at Red Oak for about one year, and Beverly has lived at Red Oak with her husband James Fleck since December 2014.

Here’s to fifty more. Tullamore Care Community in Brampton celebrated their fiftieth birthday in June with a glorious garden party. The event doubled as an opportunity to also celebrate their rebranding under the new name Tullamore Care Community, and new parent company name Sienna Senior Living.
Tullamore’s executive director, Astrida Kalnins, opened the event to a garden full of residents, employees, community partners and stakeholders, as well as many other guests.
 
Sienna Senior Living’s CEO, Lois Cormack, attended and spoke at the event.
 
“Tullamore has a very proud history in this community,” she said. “This business has changed considerably over the past fifty years, and it’s unbelievable the new skills and requirements that employees have had to learn and adopt.”
 
She explained that as residents’ needs have changed, employees try and make every day as meaningful as possible.
 
“It’s about the warmth of human connection. It’s about the relationships, and knowing that your needs are going to be met when families leave their loves ones in our care.”
 
A representative of Kyle Seeback, Conservative MP for Brampton West, presented a certificate and read out a personal message from the Prime Minister of Canada. Other community leaders also spoke at the event, including the Mayor of Brampton Linda Jeffrey.
 
Throughout its fifty years, Tullamore has had only four executive directors. Someone who knows the home extremely well is Dr. Brian Thicke, who started working there as a physician when it opened in 1965. He still continues looking after the residents today along with Dr. Simon Cheung, who has been serving residents at Tullamore for the past 36 years.
 
“This place keeps rising and rising,” said Dr. Thicke. “I have never seen such fluorescent staff—so caring, so committed and dedicated. You are really great, and I want you to know that when I’m in here… I want you to look after me!”

It’s obvious from the way Donna places her hands on the keyboard that she’s typed before, in her working life. Donna is a resident at Cedarvale Lodge Retirement and Care Community in Keswick Ontario, and is learning how to send an email to her granddaughter. She inserts “send me some photos!” in the subject line as Kaylin, Donna’s student mentor, sits in close to guide her.
 
Cedarvale Lodge has partnered with Keswick High School to launch the innovative Cyber-Seniors program in their first home. Student mentors from the school’s leadership program introduce residents to online communication tools such as email, Google, Facebook, Skype and YouTube.
 
The 80-year age gap between Bill and his mentor doesn’t bother him at all. He used to be able to touch-type in the army, but feels more competent on the iPad because there is less typing involved.
 
Bettie is looking at an article about Errol Flynn on the Vanity Fair website. Her student mentor Holly shows Bettie how to use the scroll wheel on the mouse, which she gets easily, along with the double-click that almost every other resident is having trouble with. “I don’t have a problem reading off the screen,” she says proudly. “My eyesight is very good.”
 
There are also additional benefits for seniors in accessing memories. When one of the residents found his childhood home on Google Maps, he found a nearby dance hall he used to go to, and spent the rest of the period talking about this time in his life.
 
Following the completion of the program, a graduation ceremony was held at Cedarvale Lodge. Residents wore the traditional academic cap and gown, and were accompanied by their mentors into a decorated graduation hall full of family and friends.

The Toronto-based charity Loving Rose Mission, run by husband-and-wife team David and Susan Ruskin, collect donated equipment from our homes and ship it to rural community hospitals in the Philippines to be reused.

Several of our homes have been donating beds, mattresses, wheelchairs, walkers, clothing and blankets for several years now. This has allowed us to recycle and clear storage space, while also helping those in need on the other side of the world.

David started the registered charity in 2007, and says health problems in rural areas of the Philippines can often be terminal due to limited health resources. The main requirement in Philippine nursing homes is for beds. Once the donated beds from Sienna Senior Living have been refurbished, the hospitals often say they are “just like new”.

At the moment, only donations from long-term care homes and hospitals in Ontario are collected due to limited resources. The Mission uses a temporary storage facility in Toronto, and ships a 40 ft. container to the capital city Manila about four or five times per year. The containers are unloaded, inspected by customs, and taken to a warehouse for refurbishment before being transported to the city of Bacolod, where David and Susan live.

When this question was posed to residents at Island Park Retirement Residence recently, one resident, Jean Taylor, ended up fulfilling a long-awaited dream to go on a horse and cutter ride again.

The last time Jean did this was in 1942 when she was 12 years old and living in Nova Scotia. She loved horses, and took the ride with her childhood friends. Now 85, she relies on her motorized chair to get around, but is determined not to let her immobility get in her way.

You could be forgiven for confusing a cutter with a sleigh, when in fact cutters were created solely for leisure, and designed to be snug and comfortable, for one or two people only. Sleighs, on the other hand, were built to accommodate a larger group—sometimes a whole family.

At first, the process of bringing Jean’s dream to life was easier said than done. This was mainly due to weather conditions and the practical matter of having both a horse and a cutter available at the same time. However, a local farmer was able to provide both, and with a welcome temperature increase, a dream came true!

A framed black and white photograph in Elizabeth Kimoff’s room at Harmony Hills Care Community in Toronto shows three young boys standing together. One of the boys is Elizabeth’s son, 86-year-old Dr. Richard Kimoff, who was visiting his mother on her 110th birthday.
 
Elizabeth looked twenty years younger than her 110 years. Her hair was combed back neatly, and she had a beautiful, calm disposition and rosy cheeks.
 
She was born in 1904, and moved to Canada in 1923 with her brother from their village in rural Macedonia. She was eighteen at the time.
 
After settling in Toronto and becoming part of the growing Macedonian community, her first job was working as a finisher of men’s suits. These were difficult times, with many cultural adjustments and a steep language barrier.
 
She married in 1926, and lived in a shared house with her husband. The couple moved to an apartment shortly afterwards, and Richard was born.
 
When asked what she remembers about her childhood, she replied with a smile: “Picking cherries. They had lots of cherry trees in the village.” Years later she maintained a few peach trees she had planted from seed in a small plot in Toronto.
 
Elizabeth continues to be very disciplined, especially with her diet and her devotion to Christian faith. She never watches television, but does enjoy listening to hymns, and learned English by consistently consulting a dictionary. Richard adds that she often rode the subway to the end of the line for fun, and enjoys the odd treat of chocolate with hazelnuts, or navel oranges.
 
Elizabeth Kimoff is one of the oldest living supercentenarians (centenarians over 110 years old) in Canada. The world’s oldest documented person is Gertrude Weaver in the United States, who is 116 years old.