Claras Crew

Ends: February 7, 2020

The French family has needed the Ronald McDonald House on three separate occasions, and they have been so thankful for it each and every time. In January 2018, when Jenna French had a C-section in Red Deer with the birth of her second child, Clara, her husband Kyle stayed at the House for a few nights with their son, Kal. The French family lives in a remote, rural area – not close to the hospital. “It was incredible,” she says. “The House allowed us to stay together as a family because we couldn’t have otherwise – we live too far away.” Three weeks later, baby Clara contracted RSV (a respiratory virus) and Jenna rushed to the hospital without even taking her wallet or jacket. “It was winter…I didn’t have anything,” she says. “Some lovely ladies at the House had knitted some toques and they gave me a blanket and stuffy for Clara’s crib.” Jenna utilized the Day Use program to grab a bite to eat. “To be able to eat a good meal, made it all a lot better.” Clara was later diagnosed with craniosynostosis, and they found out she needed surgery at nine months to reconstruct the two skull plates that make up her forehead. This time, the French family found themselves in the Calgary House for a week. “I don’t even know where you begin to describe what the House is like,” Jenna says. “It’s an incredible, indescribable sense of family even though it’s not your own family in there – you just feel like everyone there is family.” “You don’t walk into it with uncertainty,” Jenna says of her stay at the House. “You walk in and know you’re part of everybody else’s journey.”