Erin’s Elizabeth McMaster Birnie has dedicated a large portion of her life ensuring complete strangers are comfortable as they near death.
Formerly a palliative care nurse for 14 years with the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON), she gave up that job to dedicate upwards of seven years to plan and build Caledon’s first hospice facility in Inglewood.
Bethell House, as it is known, has been open for just over a year, but the $5-million, 10,000 square foot facility has already helped to ensure about 130 individuals – including many from Wellington County – are comfortable and at peace in their final days.
“Here, families can participate in the care, but they’re not responsible for it,” McMaster Birnie said from inside Bethell House. “Families can enjoy their loved one up until the moment they die.”
She often refers to the project as her “baby,” although she noted getting the facility up and running required “seven years of very, very hard work and a lot of ups and downs.”
In recognition of her devotion to the project, from concept to construction to fundraising, McMaster Birnie was recently named one of 20 individuals and groups in Ontario to receive the June Callwood Outstanding Achievement Award for Voluntarism.
“Ontario’s five million volunteers truly are the heart of our communities,” Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Dr. Eric Hoskins said at an April 15 ceremony in Toronto.
“Their vital contributions help maintain our quality of life in Ontario. This award recognizes their commitment to building vibrant communities and a stronger province for us all.”
The award, which salutes leadership, innovation, and creativity in volunteerism and community service, is named after late journalist and author June Callwood, who was one of Canada’s best-known social activists.
Louise Stinson, manager of volunteers at Bethell House, nominated McMaster Birnie for the honour.
“It it weren’t for Elizabeth, I’m not sure we’d have the Bethell House today,” Stinson said. “She’s a great ambassador … she’s just fabulous. I can’t say enough about her.”
McMaster Birnie said she was “shocked and honoured” to receive the recognition.
“I was amazed Louise went to the trouble to fill out the application,” she said. “[The ceremony] was very nice.”
McMaster Birnie is quick to deflect praise for the hospice facility – “It was a huge community project, it’s not just me,” she said – but there is no denying her personal connection with the origins of Bethell House.
In 2004, her step-father, Tony Bethell, passed away at home, surrounded by loved ones. McMaster Birnie contrasts his “beautiful” experience with the “horrible” death of Tony’s son, Jamie, who died of cancer in a hospital.
The contradictory experiences impelled her mother, Lorna Bethell, to ensure more people die like her husband, and fewer like her stepson.
“For me, it was the countless faces I had sent to the hospital over the years,” McMaster Birnie said. “You just saw the huge strain on the families [whose loved ones died in a hospital bed].”
When Lorna Bethell’s uncle passed away and left her a large inheritance, McMaster Birnie urged her mother to make a financial commitment to a hospice facility.
“I told her, ‘If you want something badly enough, you just do it’,” said McMaster Birnie.
So Lorna Bethell made a $2-million donation to the cause, which Stinson said “just spurred the rest of the community on.”
That donation was matched by the provincial government, and the remaining $1-million was raised by the Hospice Caledon Foundation, with McMaster Birnie playing a lead role. The tranquil three-acre property was provided by the Town of Caledon.
On April 15 of last year, Bethell House, which is designed to provide a home-like setting with 10 private bedrooms, officially opened.
Perhaps the easiest task was coming up with a monicker for the new facility, which is named in honour of Jamie and Tony Bethell.
A fighter pilot with the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and hero in the Second World War, Tony Bethell was one of 76 air force officers to break out of Stalag Luft III during The Great Escape in 1944. He was one of only 26 prisoners to survive the daring scheme to dig three tunnels out of the camp, which was made famous in the 1963 Hollywood film starring Steve McQueen.
Tony Bethell, who was apparently not a fan of The Great Escape film, retired from the RAF in June 1955 and moved to Montreal, where he held several jobs in money management and the brokerage business. Upon retiring in the early 1990s he and Lorna moved to a farm in Caledon.
McMaster Birnie grew up in Montreal and for the last 23 years has lived just south of Erin with her husband, Dr. Stuart Birnie. Their four kids are all grown and living in places ranging from Burlington to Vancouver to Norway.
McMaster Birnie said she loves the Erin area, particularly the generosity of the local people. She noted a lot of donations to Bethell House have come from Wellington County, with Erin and Hillsburgh “hugely involved.”
She explained businesses and churches in both areas have hosted various fundraisers, and in addition to serving as some of the facility’s 150-plus volunteers, locals have also donated quilts and paintings to help make the building feel more homey.
“It was a labour of love,” she said, specifically referring to the “sacred quilt” that covers the bodies leaving Bethell House and was made by hand by several ladies in Hillsburgh.
What’s happened locally is perhaps indicative of the larger trend that is seeing the hospice movement grow by leaps and bounds in Ontario.
In 2003, there were only a handful of hospice facilities in the province, McMaster Birnie noted, but now there are over 20 (Hospice Wellington opened a new facility in Guelph last spring to coincide with the organization’s 30th anniversary).
As a nurse, McMaster Birnie realized years ago the great need for a hospice facility in Caledon. At the outset, people in Inglewood were “terrified” about the idea, she said, but now many from the village volunteer at the new facility.
“They finally understand what it’s about,” she said.
From the high ceilings and timber framing in the entrance, to the open kitchen and the inviting fire place in the living room area, to the library, quiet room, and children’s play room, Bethell House feels nothing like a hospital and more like a home.
“We chose to do something totally different here,” said McMaster Birnie, who closely oversaw the construction.
Pets are welcome at the facility and each of the ten rooms, located in two separate wings overlooking a bucolic garden area, has pull-out beds for family members.
“The feedback has been astounding,” she said. “[Families] can’t believe the attention to detail and the love involved in the construction.”
Nurses are on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and Bethell House also boasts a part-time physician (although patients can have their own doctor visit as well), a spiritual committee, a social worker, and occupational therapist, not to mention kitchen staff ready to make homemade food at any time.
“The idea is to take care of the whole person,” McMaster Birnie said, adding the spiritual and emotional aspects are important parts of the care provided. “It’s kind of taken a lot of the mystery and fear away from death. It makes death a normal process, like a birth … people don’t need to hide from it.”
Unlike a hospital, she explained, there is no parking fee or cost for a television – nor is there a long commute for most patients at the facility and their families.
“Essentially, the cost to the family is nothing,” she said, adding that officials do welcome in memoriam donations.
Any resident from Ontario can stay at the facility, though admission is based on need. She noted about 15% of the patients are from Caledon, while a lot come from Wellington and Dufferin Counties, as well as Peel Region.
“We’ve had people from all over,” she said.
Every Tuesday at Bethell House, patients can take part in a high tea service, which Lorna Bethell, at age 82, still regularly attends.
“She’s still very involved,” McMaster Birnie said of her mother. “She’s essentially the reason why we were able to pay for this.”
But there are still ongoing expenses. The facility annually costs about $1.5-million to operate, and a regular provincial grant of $650,000 still leaves $850,000 to be raised each year.
It is hoped that one day the province will see the benefit of funding all the operational expenses – McMaster Birnie noted it costs about $500 a day less to care for someone at Bethell House than in a hospital – but until then, foundation members have their work cut out for them.
McMaster Birnie, who quit her job with VON because planning for the Bethell House became a full-time job, now works as a nurse for her husband’s medical practice and dedicates a lot of her time to fundraising for Bethell House.
“It’s her passion,” Stinson said of McMaster Birnie’s ongoing efforts. “She’s so passionate about what she’s doing, she’s able to engage the community.”
But McMaster Birnie again deflects praise, hinting most people are generous, they just need an impetus to help out.
“You just keep pushing and if people believe in you, they’ll donate money,” she said, adding many of her own family members, including herself, are among the 3,000-plus donors to date at Bethell House.
“They believe in us and they believe in the community,” she said of the donors.
That likely comes very easily when there are people like McMaster Birnie setting such a great example.
For more information or to donate money to Bethell House visit www.hospicecaledon.ca. For more information about Hospice Wellington, or to donate locally, visit www.hospicewellington.org.
*With files from hospicecaledon.ca.
