How to donate to Palliative Care

As you would have read in Carole's obituary, she had requested that donations could be made to the QE II Foundation, Palliative Care Unit 7A.

I was down there last week and asked how people would go about this, and what people could do to help.
They have a "wish list", and were kind enough to give me a copy. Quite an assortment of things, and I am sure we all have one or two of these items collecting dust!

Here is the list:
Donations for music therapy
Donations for patient amenities
Can opener for patient/family kitchen
Non scented shaving cream
Toothpaste and toothbrushes
Pony side rail wedges ($195 approx) 4 are needed
Roho and gel pads
Disposable razors
Air mattress
Personal DVD players
Talking clocks
7 foot hospital bed
Queen size hospital bed
Wall clocks with large numbers
Various sizes of mens pj's/slippers
Hair dryer
Lamps for patient rooms (unless hospital will provide them) Smaller than we currently have
Or new lamp shades
Satin pillow cases
Bobby pins/hair elastics
Hair brushes
Hand held mirrors
Brown sugar
Honey
Fold away cots (twin) current models are getting really old
Infant hair brushes


I also asked about cash donations and was given the following instructions:

Make the cheque to QEII HSC Foundation, Palliative Care
Mail to QEII HSC VG Site, 1276 South Park Street, Halifax, NS B3H 2Y9
Include a note saying that the donation is in memory of Carole Lemire of Halifax, and include an address for family to be notified of the donation if you want.
You could likely use Mario's address:
Mario Lemire
13 Havelock Crescent,
Dartmouth, NS B2W 4T7

Also include your own address and they will mail you a receipt for your taxes.


The wish list is great information. Some of Carole's friends are blessed with spare money, and some are not. But we can all do something I am sure.

And with all the blood transfusions that Carole had, I think donating blood should be on everyone's agenda who can do so.
I know that I have not in the past, but plan to in the future.
Blood is always in short supply at the hospital, and they were more than generous with Carole in that regard. I had heard that some patients in her condition were not so lucky. It would be a nice way to pay it forward and to honour Carole's memory.

Cheers

Rodney

Carole's Obituary to appear in Thursday's paper

LEMIRE, Carole Helene - 43, Halifax. Passed away peacefully Monday
September 7, 2009 in the VG site, QE II Health Sciences Centre. Born in
Montreal, she was a daughter of the late Marcel and Lise (Fournier) Lemire.
Carole is survived by her loving children Amber and Colton Frausell,
Halifax; brother Mario (Joanne) Lemire, Cole Harbour; sister Natacha (Kris)
Bucci, Victoria BC and several nieces and nephews. Cremation has taken
place. Visitation will be held 2-4pm and 7-9 pm Thursday September 10 at
Atlantic Funeral Home, 6552 Bayers Road, Halifax. Memorial service to be
held 2:00 pm Friday September 11 at Fairview United Church, Rev. Heather
Fraser officiating. Reception to follow in the church hall. Interment to
take place in Dartmouth Memorial Gardens. In lieu of flowers donations may
be made to the QE II Foundation, Palliative Care Unit 7A. Special thanks to
all of Carole's friends who stood by her side throughout her brave battle
with cancer. Thank you also to the Dr. Walsh and Dr. Christie and the
nurses of 7A VG site. Online condolences may be sent to the family by
visiting www.atlanticfuneralhomes.com

Service for Carole

I think everyone has heard the sad news by now. Carole passed away on Sunday.

Natacha contacted me tonight with the arrangements for this week.

There will be a delay in this information hitting the newspaper, so she wanted me to pass it on.

Visiting family will be on Thursday September 10th at the Atlantic Funeral Home on Bayers Road.
There will be afternoon and night time visitation.
We should have exact hours by tomorrow.
The night time visitation is open to friends or anyone who wants to pay their respects to visit.

Services will be held at the Fairview United Church on Dutch Village Rd. Friday September 11th at 2:00 P.M. Reception to follow at the church.
This is open to anyone who wants to attend and pay their respects.

Please pass this info on to those who do not yet know.

Thanks

Rodney

Sunday September 6

I was in to see Carole for a short visit today around Noon.
She was quite tired and had her sign up to have visitors check with the nurse's station.
She was not as good as a few days earlier, but not as bad as maybe 10 days ago.
She was a bit confused, but mostly very tired.

RR

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4th, 3:00 PM

I was in to visit Carole this afternoon and the sign was posted but they allowed me to visit for a few minutes. She was pretty good today but obviously very tired as she could barely keep her eyes open. Didn't stay long so that she could rest. The nurses basically have said that she is much better this week than last but most of you already know that. Ian Paton

Wednesday evening

I was in around 6pm tonight, and Carole was sleeping.
The nurse said that she had requested visits only from Mario or the kids as she was not feeling that great.

I hear that her stomach has been bothering her some.

I hope to see her tomorrow unless she is resting and will post any new news.

RR

Wednesday Sept 2nd

Carole has been doing much better lately.

She is thinking much clearer.
She has stopped some of the meds that she felt were making her "dopey".
Could be the meds or any combination of things, but she is much more lucid.
She still does tire quickly, so keep visits short, and if you show up and there is a sign saying no visitors, don't be offended. She has busy spurts of people at times, and when she wants to rest, we tell her to just put up the sign.

If anyone visits and has anything to post, please remember that anyone can post on this blog and keep us all informed.

The login name is RocketRodHfx@yahoo.com, and the password is Lemire14.

For those who do not know, there is a sheet on the door that people can sign in times on.
It was helpful for when we were trying to have someone there 24 hours a day.
With Carole being more awake now, I am hoping this level of visitation is not needed.
We simply can't get enough bodies to pull it off.
I have a feeling that the week day times are likely pretty slow for visitors as most are back in their work rhythms now. If you had time during the day through the week, and wanted to visit, I would think that there would not be a crowd!

Rodney