Canuck Place
“Can I get two medium strawberry sundaes, a small banana cream pie blizzard, and a small cookie dough blizzard please?” My Dad said to the speaker box at Dairy Queen. We stopped in Chilliwack for an ice cream break on our way to Canuck Place Children’s Hospice in Vancouver.
In 2006 during one of my bi-annual visits to the BC Childrens Hospital a nurse, Cindy told my parents and me about the Canuck Place Program. She had said how other patients and their families stayed at Canuck Place while attending appointments at the Children's Hospital. Canuck Place (CP) is a hospice, so there is that “end of life” side to it, however, they also did respite care. We were interested so Cindy inquired about starting me on the program.
We were on our way in 2007 to CP for the first time, and I had no idea what to expect. While driving along the Coquihalla Hwy, I discussed CP with my parents. My Mom had mentioned how I wouldn’t be staying on the same floor as the rest of my family. I don't know why I didn't think of that before, but that thought terrified me. In my head, I portrayed it to be a sterile and cold hospital-like setting. Nobody likes staying in a hospital unless they have a smokin’ hot nurse. The rest of that drive I was dreading my upcoming stay at CP.
We pulled up to this really big 4 story Mansion with an accessible courtyard and playground for kids. It was the complete opposite of what I was expecting. We went inside to the reception desk to check in and I noticed the woman helping us was staring weirdly at my Dad’s shirt. We didn’t realize until later that my dad had a big strawberry sundae stain on his shirt. Way to make a good first impression, Dad.
After checking in, we all went up to the second floor where I would be staying, and we were greeted by Mike, one of the PCA’s on shift that night. All my anxieties and reluctance about staying there, especially without my parents, quickly evaporated because of Mike; he knew it was my first time and made me feel super comfortable. He even let me stay up super late playing my computer game. Everybody I met through Canuck Place were amazing people. Considering I was only 14, adults were rarely cool, but every nurse, PCA, administrator, and Volunteer I had met made a lasting impression on me. Even the other kids from there, I made life-long friendships with. Shout out to Tyrone…you know who you are!
I can remember one night staying up all night with the night-shift nurses watching movies, as I had a hard drive full of them. After watching gems like Repo! The Genetic Opera and the Thai supernatural slasher classic, Sick Nurses (please google it, it is nothing dirty, trust me) one of the Nurses, Christine went and got herself a snack. She had filled a mug full of cookie dough and I immediately asked her upon seeing it “Where did you get that? I want some.” She went with me down to the kitchen to get me a mug of cookie dough. We returned to the nursing station, put a glove on my hand and I went to town, eating cookie dough by the handful. One of the other nurses, Christina took a picture and was laughing really hard. And with tears rolling down her cheeks she exclaimed how it looked like I was eating a big BM. Keeping the weird theme of the night, after our snack we googled strange and random factoids such as: can you overdose on fibre? And Has there ever been a successful testicular transplant? You get sillier when you are tired.
I just realized that a lot of my memories from CP revolve around movies. Every Tuesday the Rec Therapist, Laura, loads all of us kids up into the CP bus and we head off to the theatre to watch a movie. This got Laura and I chatting about my favorite movies. I told her how my two favorites are and will always be Happy Gilmore and Dumb and Dumber. She said she hadn't seen Happy Gilmore and didn't know what it was. That boggled my mind. I then rambled on about the movie explaining how good and hilarious it is. To which she replied, “Okay, Kyle, I will tell you what, I will get the movie for the house if you write me a 3-page essay by Friday about why I should get it.” Of course, procrastination got the better of me and I waited until Friday morning to get started on it. I opened up Word, set the font to 100 and a couple of sentences later I was done. The essay was something like “Happy Gilmore is an amazing movie and you should get it for the house because it is really funny and really cool.” The next day Laura bought it…mission accomplished.
I have so many memories that I cherish, that this post could go on forever and ever. Over the 5 years that I had gone there, and some years I went twice, there was always something happening. I get overwhelmed when I think of it all. The tip of the iceberg of my experiences is staying up late most nights and just chillin' with the night shift nurses and PCAs: Diana, Christine, Beth, Sharon, Christin, Will, Mike, Christina, Angela, Helen, Stephanie, Shanna… I hope I am not forgetting anybody! Chillin out and getting up to shenanigans with all the volunteers: Johnson, Amrit, Brad, Chris, Diana, Malcolm, and so many more; Hanging out and getting to know all of the other kids: Luke, Robert, Jaxson, Victoria, Aun, Ian, Justin, Jordan, Ari, and Tristan. The time Christin and I watched Jackass for her first time and she had tears rolling down her cheeks from laughter; When Will introduced me to late-night Geocaching; When Christine and I watched every single Saw movie, 1 through 8, and laughed at how terrible and cheesy they were; The time I met Beau Bridges at the house, and Angela had to tell me who he was as I had no idea, then I played it cool as if I knew all along. I went with him and all the other kids to a BC Lions Game; When Christin dyed my hair purple, I looked pretty damn good if you ask me; The time I was hanging outside chatting with Trevor Linden for 40 minutes and did not know who he was until after he was gone and they had let me know; I unknowingly asked Ryan Johnson from the Canucks when the Canucks were going to arrive for a Halloween event, obviously, I don't follow sports. And to go out with a bang during my last visit when I was 18 Laura and Gillian took me indoor skydiving, which was $200 to go up for 60 seconds in a wind tunnel…
I wouldn’t be who I am today if it weren’t for my time at the Canuck Place and all my adventures with everyone I met along the way. I really encourage everyone and anyone to donate to The Canuck Place Childrens Hospice https://www.canuckplace.org/light-a-life/ to make a difference in someone else’s life.
