About a month ago, I mentioned that the mental health support group I’m involved with had teamed up with the Cornwall Community Hospital to improve the interactions between family caregivers and the doctors, nurses and other health care providers treating their loved one.
Funded by a grant from The Change Foundation, the aim of this unique project is to develop solutions that support the family’s caregiver role, recognize the value of the family’s contribution and enhance the recovery process. Because family caregivers often play a crucial role in the recovery of persons struggling with addiction and mental health problems.
The first step of the three-year initiative is to talk to families and find out what changes THEY want to see… a process that begins on Saturday, June 17th in Cornwall. From 9:00 – 12:00, the EMBRACE Project is hosting focus groups, in both French and English, to hear ideas from families caring for someone with an addiction or mental health problem. So if your loved one has an addiction or mental health problem, please come out and tell us what supports caregivers like yourself need. What would make YOUR life easier?
The event is being held at the new Community Addiction & Mental Health Centre, 850 McConnell Avenue… just north of the hospital’s ER parking lot. Space is limited, so you MUST register in advance by e-mailing the EMBRACE team at embrace@cornwallhospital.ca or by calling 613-936-4676. Parking is free and there will be refreshments and door prizes. And if this Saturday’s group isn’t convenient, other dates and locations around SD&G are available. Just contact the team for details.
Sentinel of sadness
You may have passed by it countless times when visiting the Glengarry Pioneer Museum, without giving it a moment’s thought. It stands at the south end of the Drive Shed quietly rusting its days away. To what do I refer? The old hand-operated gas pump that once called Nelson Montgomery’s Auto Repair garage home. The garage, located on the southwest corner of Dunvegan’s crossroads, was housed in the extension that ran to the west along Dunvegan Road. The pump stood outside on a little island, where it fueled vehicles from far and wide.
However, in time, the repair garage closed. The extension to the old red brick hotel was demolished. And the pump was torn out and sent across the road to its final resting place on the museum grounds. An outlier, the artifact really shouldn’t even be there. It’s age, circa 1925, puts it outside the museum’s artifact acquisition mandate.
Nevertheless, it is there. And it occurred to me the other day that it deserves a little respect. This type of “Visible” pump (so named because of the glass reservoir on top) fell smack in the middle of a technological explosion driven by the rapid increase in the number of automobiles in North America. To keep up with the demand, gasoline pumps quickly evolved from the crude models of 1915 that offered no way of measuring the amount of fuel that was dispensed… to the first “Computing” pumps that displayed the number of gallons sold right on the unit’s face. These latter models were the forerunners of today’s high-speed dispensers.
I’m very familiar with the operation of this glass-topped type of pump because there was one at Walker’s General Store in Lakefield, Quebec when I was a young boy. This was in the 1950s, and for gasoline a more modern one had replaced it. But the old-timer was still used to dispense kerosene for the coal oil lamps that were needed before electricity hit our corner of the Laurentians.
As a youngster, I delighted in moving the long vertical pump handle back and forth and watching the lamp fuel noisily fill the reservoir. One continued pumping until the level reached the amount you wanted, sort of. (It used to slosh around for a few moments after you stopped pumping.) Then, you lifted the nozzle, inserted it in your container and squeezed the nozzle’s handle. A magical moment of sights, sounds and smells that stays with me even today. What can I tell you? My generation didn’t need all that much to stay amused.
What has all this got to do with the Dunvegan museum’s pump? Simple. I’d like to see it restored to its former glory. Since it’s not a priceless antique, but simply a collectible curiosity, there’s no reason why it couldn’t be brought back to life… perhaps as the centerpiece of a small living history exhibit on the automobile in rural Ontario of the 1920s. Perhaps even MacEwen Petroleum would be interested in underwriting its restoration and sponsoring the exhibit?
“Three Tricks” Friday
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines euchre as a “card game in which each player is dealt five cards and the player making trump must take three tricks to win a hand.” This definition is no doubt accurate. But, in Dunvegan, it involves a whole lot more: seeing old friends and meeting new ones, stimulating conversation and an event “bookended” with delicious food.
We start with the main lunch at around noon, featuring heaps of sandwiches, plates of pickles and beets and a dessert tray to drool over, all washed down with fresh brewed coffee and tea. And after the low-impact euchre tournament, whatever food is left makes a second appearance for the post-game wrap-up.
Sound good? Well, be sure to join the Dunvegan euchre gang this Friday, June 16th. Admission is only $5 and includes all the food you can eat and many hands of cards. A 50/50 draw is also part of the fun. Held in the Dunvegan Recreation Hall at 19053 County Road 24, the event starts at 12:00 and wraps up around 3:30 PM. Everyone is welcome.
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