Personal Narrative: The Queen Victoria Hospital

I don’t follow much news from Quebec. Even though I grew up in the Eastern Townships I am so wrapped up in my own community I missed one important news item. The Queen Victoria Hospital in Montreal is closing on Sunday. I don’t have many fond memories of the 122-year-old hospital located on Mount Royal. My first memory as a 2-year-old was sitting on a cast iron hospital bed while my Mother was playing solitaire. There were no children allowed in the hospital in those days, but after my Mother gave birth to me she had no idea who anyone was. The doctors hoped some memory might come back into her life seeing me. But she did not remember anything for a very long time.

Then it was tuberculosis shots for me as my Mother had the horrible disease from age 14-19, and her children had to be protected. For a time she was put in an iron lung in The Royal Victoria as they thought she had polio. In reality, she had lymphoma on the spine, which was to be later diagnosed when my sister passed away in the 90’s– long after my Mother had died. For years I lived in the shadow of the aging and turreted 19th-century hospital, and each day it gave me the shivers as I waited for the bus.

on Sunday, ambulances will begin ferrying patients to the new McGill University Health Centre “super hospital” 6.3 kilometres away. Friends of mine who live outside the city must now go to the new “super hospital’ in Montreal or try switching to possibly an easier solution in nearby Sherbrooke, Quebec. I feel for them, as some are elderly and it is a challenge to drive in heavy city traffic and find your way around. Old dogs seldom learn new tricks, and I for one would be concerned if I was in the same place. There is a similar community hospital to ours in Cowansville, Quebec, but like most small hospitals it can’t do what the new “super hospitals”