Help keep families together while their sick child is treated at a nearby hospital.
The Dumont-Fugere Family
Though nothing can ever ease the pain of losing a child, The Dumont-Fugere Family is forever grateful for the time they got to spend with their daughter Isabella.
Stayed with
RMHC Montreal
Nights spent with RMHC
110
Seeing your child hospitalized causes stress that is crushingly difficult to cope with. You’d do anything to help them get their health back, and you wouldn’t wish the pain they’re going through on your worst enemy.
But what do you do when you find out your child’s medical needs cannot be met at your regional hospital and they must be sent away to receive specialized treatment? What goes through a sick child’s mind when you tell they have to leave home?
We faced this reality in 2002 and, like thousands of other parents, we had to answer the hard questions a child asks in this situation: Am I going to get better? Am I going to die? How long will I have to stay far away from home and my friends? And the only question that can be answered with certainty: Are you coming with me?
On top of dealing with a sense of helplessness and extreme anxiety, you must also completely reorganize your family and professional life. Who is going to take care of your other children at home? How do you tell your boss you have to stop working? What will you live on? How do you manage the considerable increase in expenses that you now must face: living accommodations, a mortgage, travel costs, parking, phone bills, food — everything adds up very quickly.
“Besides having to deal with a sense of helplessness and extreme anxiety, you must also completely reorganize your family life and professional life”
Our daughter was transferred to Sainte-Justine Hospital for what we were told would be a two-week stay. Isabelle stayed there for 110 days, during which time, thanks to the extraordinary support of the Ronald McDonald House Montreal, we were able to be with her nearly 24 hours a day before she passed away.
Staying at Ronald McDonald House Montreal allowed us to spend time with other parents from across the province who had also given up everything to be with their child. We met families who stayed for short visits and parents who were there for three, six, or nine months — even a whole year! All without any help other than from Ronald McDonald House to get through this difficult ordeal.
Thank you to RMHC for keeping our family, and families like ours, close when we needed it most.
