I had the best childhood. My parents raised me among many grandmas and grandpas.
My mother was a nurse at a small hospital in Saskatchewan, Canada. During her time there, she recognized that many acute care hospital beds were being occupied by seniors who were falling through cracks in the healthcare system. This inspired her to want to build and operate a senior living home to better meet their needs. After some work securing funding, that vision came to light. When I was 11 years old, my parents opened a personal care home in Yellow Grass, a small farming town in southern Saskatchewan, that provided support for all levels of senior care.
Each day after school, I would happily visit the care home to share the events of my day with 32 eagerly awaiting seniors. While other teenagers were babysitting, I was working in our care home, singing Anne Murray songs and tucking residents into bed before I went out for the evening with my friends.
Upon high school graduation, my goal was to have a career like my mother’s, one where I could combine my love for healthcare and business. I earned my nursing degree before completing my MBA. After my mother retired, it was time for me to define my own path. Recently married, my husband and I were focusing on starting our family, so we wanted to remain in the city. The family business was sold to a new owner, and I purchased my own senior care community within the city of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
With my career on track, our focus shifted to becoming parents, which would consume our lives for several years as we struggled with infertility. Our pursuit of hope took us out of country, through many procedures, pregnancies, and losses. However, our family was eventually blessed with healthy twin girls. Parenthood brought a new journey for us, as my daughter Ciara was born hearing impaired.
Now, it was my turn to learn how to navigate the bewildering paths of the healthcare and education systems—an experience that taught me the importance of advocacy and creating “a village” of support to help achieve our goals and connect resources.
I realized that the same concept would be applicable for senior living, igniting a new career passion to create a multigenerational housing model aimed at making seniors’ lives more meaningful. The model would allow them to design their own retirement experience, choosing from a variety of social, educational, and physical activities. I received a grant from the Saskatchewan Housing Corp. to develop a project targeting senior housing, child care, and post-secondary students.
By October 2017, Orange Tree Village was fully operational in Regina. This community-centered environment includes residents, students, families, and other community members and is helping to normalize aging and disabilities. It teaches everyone about supporting one another as a village.
With every visit to Orange Tree, I’m reminded to embrace life, get messy, and have fun. My girls are learning to see others beyond a person’s age, diagnosis, or disability. They see a person.
