Garden Honours Late Emergency Department Nurse at Ross Memorial Hospital

AMANDA CARVALHO, Communications and Public Affairs Officer, Ross Memorial Hospital

KAWARTHA LAKES: Each year at Ross Memorial Hospital, departments ‘adopt’ and beautify garden spaces around the property, to compete for a ‘Garden Cup.’ This year, the Emergency Department (E.D.) chose to dedicate their garden to their late colleague, Stacie Vokins. Stacie was a Registered Practical Nurse who worked primarily in the E.D. for more than 20 years. She passed away in November 2019. The E.D. garden won first place in the annual contest. Theresa Connell and Marlene Dawson, two of Stacie’s colleagues in the E.D., coordinated with staff, physicians, community partners and Stacie’s family to create the memorial garden, which includes hostas and other flowers from Stacie’s own garden. “We incorporated purple flowers, because that was Stacie’s favourite colour, and yellow flowers, for remembrance,” Theresa shared, “The flowers from Stacie’s garden line both sides of the pathway as you walk in, like a hug from Stacie.” In describing Stacie, Marlene said “[She was] very family oriented, loved sports and was very competitive, so she would have loved that we worked together with her family, and that we won the competition.” Thank you, to all of the staff, physicians, partners, friends and most of all, Stacie’s family, for creating this garden together. The team plans to keep the garden beautiful for many years to come, “because this isn’t just where we work,” Theresa shared, “This is our family.”