The wonderful legacy of Jocelyn House

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/12/2016 (3246 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If only the house could talk…

It would tell us how its owners, William Hutton and his wife, Miriam, transferred their riverside home in the early 1980s to found Western Canada’s first free-standing hospice, Jocelyn House, which opened in 1985 so that people could enjoy as much serenity in the last part of their lives as their daughter Jocelyn did in that very place.

Dr. Miriam Hutton, a gifted university professor of social work, died in 2009 but I spoke to Rev. Hutton for further insights.

He was a very active community member — an ordained Anglican Church minister, a high school guidance counsellor, a councillor on the Greater Winnipeg Metropolitan Council, and a recipient of Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal in 2012 for outstanding commitments and contributions to our community.

He recalled happy moments — teaching Jocelyn to skate or ski or swim, and Jocelyn’s fondness for telling jokes such as “Why does a Frenchman eat only one egg for breakfast? Because one egg is an oeuf.”

In 1980, we were saddened to hear that Jocelyn, then a 17-year-old, Grade 11 student at Glenlawn Collegiate, was afflicted with cancer. My Grade 5 class at Varennes School and I tuned in when she was interviewed on CJOB.

Jocelyn’s upbeat attitude and humble spirituality made an indelible impression on all of us, especially her reading of the poem “Footprints in the Sand.”

CJOB sent us a copy of the verse upon request, and I distributed copies to a very empathetic group of young people. Jocelyn passed on just a few weeks later.

I recently spoke to several other people about the Hutton dwelling.

Dakota House resident Mel McMurray said he and his wife, the late Sherry Bouchard, expected to find a “commercial-looking, imposing institution” when they went to see Jocelyn House after Mel noticed that his wife had regularly made donations.

They took a sunny drive down Egerton Road to see the place. But they drove right past number 177 simply because — as architecturally distinctive as it is in its idyllic setting overlooking the Seine River in St. Vital — it looks like a house, not a hospice facility. All the qualities of home that Jocelyn had lived in are still there.

Little did they know that Sherry, too, would soon be diagnosed with terminal cancer. Within a year, she was able to live out her remaining time at that hospice. She was grateful to be so comfortably ensconced in that  home-like environment.

“Giving was her whole mantra,” said Mel, who thinks Sherry deserved this kind of healing refuge after years of supporting charitable causes.

“People come here to live, not just die,” said executive director Jackie Stephen during an interview.

“Our mandate is to add life to their final days. We talk about their fears, anxieties — there’s fear of the unknown. By talking about death openly we normalize it. And we respect their dignity always. Families are welcome to join us.”  

 
“That’s what Jocelyn House is about,” says Rev. Hutton, whose daughter-in-law Kelsey, serves on the board of directors of Jocelyn House to this day.

 
And we in the community  thankfully recognize Jocelyn House as a most gracious Hutton family legacy.

Anne Yanchyshyn is a community correspondent for St. Vital.